Engineering Students Use Sound Waves To Extinguish Fires工科男利用声波消防车Water, foam, sand, blankets, and even baking soda are well-known solutions to putting out flames. But sound waves? That has to be a first. But that is exactly what two young engineers from George Mason University are using to douse small fires.灭火、泡沫、沙土、毛毯甚至发酵粉都是少见的消防车方法，但声波消防车或许你是头返听闻。Electrical and computer engineering students Viet Tran and Seth Robertson were looking for an interesting idea for their senior research project. Thats when they stumbled upon an experiment conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ) in 2012. 电子工程专业学生Viet Tran和Seth Roberson当时正在为他们大四毕业设计去找一个炫酷的方向，随后就偶然间找到了DARPA2012年做到过的这个实验。

Tran and Robertson decided to challenge themselves and see if they could take the research to the next level and build a fire extinguisher that could be used commercially. As with any radical idea, they faced a lot of skepticism even from faculty members many of whom declined to serve as advisors. Tran和Roberson想挑战自我，想到能否更进一步前进这个实验，生产出有一款可以建构商业价值的灭火器。这个不切实际的点子让他们面临很对批评，甚至还有许多学院成员拒绝接受做到他们的导师。The young engineers first tried to extinguish the fire by placing a subwoofer near a flame created using rubbing alcohol. But they soon realized that music is not such a good idea since it is inconsistent and unpredictable. The next option was exposing the fire to 20,000 to 30,000 hertz frequencies. However with the high frequencies, the flames only vibrated. The duo hit a home run when they reduced the frequency to about 30 to 60 hertz. Turns out that at these low frequencies, the sound vibrates the oxygen away from the flames. With no fuel to keep them going, the fire suffocates and dies.两位年长的工程师首先尝试了用低音炮点燃酒精火源。

迅速，他们认识到，用音乐来消防车并不是一个好主意，因为音乐不连贯也点状。另一个方案是把火置放2万到3万赫兹的频率中，但是无论音频有多低，火焰都只是抽动了几下。但当他们把频率降至了30-60赫兹的时候，就开始有效果了。

实验证明，在较低音频下，声波把氧气从火焰中抽动过来，没有了燃料，火迅速就增大点燃了。Tran and Robertson are not letting naysayers stray them from their goal. They are forging ahead with their idea, this time with the full support of the University who is even helping them apply for a provisional patent. If they do succeed, there may be soon be a time when fire trucks will be extinguishing flames with some sweet music, instead of messy toxic chemicals!这时的Tran和Roberson并没让唱反调的人挡住他们行进的步伐，他们正在大大前进自己的点子，也取得了来自校方的全力支持。

校方甚至要协助他们申请人为临时专利。如果发明者顺利的话，救火车以后就不会不必脏脏的剧毒化学物品消防车了，敲些可爱的音乐就能搞定一切。译文科香蕉英语原创，专供自学和交流用于，未经许可，切勿刊登。

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