Still, we brazenly drop this enigma into the first days of a first-year course without batting an eye. We write down equations that show how friction slows the motion of sliding objects or dampens the vibrations in springs, but, ultimately, the math merely reproduces our observations while disguising our ignorance of what underlies them.
但我们却对此视若无睹，依然厚着脸皮将这一难题编入大学一年级课程中。我们写下那些解释摩擦力为何减慢滑动物体相对运动或者减弱弹簧往复振动的公式，但归根结底，这些数学公式只不过是重现了我们——在故意忽略这些现象真正内部原因的情况下——观察的结果。