标签英国下的文章

兰洋夸特墓室，英国康沃尔郡 Lanyon Quoit burial chamber, Cornwall, England (© Guy Edwardes/Minden Pictures)

天空中的圆周率...... It's just pi in the sky...

Pi Day

Did Neolithic humans build this structure to celebrate Pi Day? Not likely. Pi Day is a relatively recent phenomenon—invented by a physicist in 1988 and designated by Congress a national holiday in 2009. But it's already almost certainly the most popular holiday celebrating a mathematical constant. While Pi Day is a young tradition, the number π (pi) itself has been a fascination since antiquity, when it was first calculated as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

You probably know that March 14 was chosen for Pi Day since the date expressed numerically (in month/date format) matches the number's first digits, 3.14. Aside from eating pie to celebrate, some people go to great lengths to memorize digits that go way beyond 3.141592…, which earns them bragging rights in some, um, circles. The world record is a staggering 70,000 digits after the decimal point—the remarkable feat was achieved by 21-year-old student Rajveer Meena in 2015.

Take a moment from your Pi Day revelry to appreciate the unintentional π symbol formed by this Neolithic burial chamber in Cornwall, England. As the morning sun warms Lanyon Quoit's ancient stones, it's impossible not to wonder who built it and how, since it predates metal tools and is older than Egypt's pyramids. Theories abound, of course, but could π have been involved?

圓周率日

新石器时代的人类建造这个建筑是为了庆祝圆周率日吗？不太可能。圆周率日是一个相对较新的现象，由物理学家在1988年发明，并在2009年被国会指定为全国性节日。但几乎可以肯定，这已经是庆祝数学常数最受欢迎的节日。虽然圆周率日是一个年轻的传统，但从远古时代开始，圆周率（Pi）本身就一直是一个令人着迷的数字，当时它最初被计算为圆的周长与直径之比。

你可能知道，3月14日被选为圆周率日，因为数字表示的日期（月/日格式）与数字的第一位数字3.14匹配。除了吃馅饼庆祝外，有些人会不遗余力地记住远远超过3.141592的数字，这让他们在一些圈子里大肆吹嘘。这项世界纪录在小数点后达到了令人震惊的70000位。这项了不起的壮举是由21岁的学生拉杰维尔·米娜在2015年创造的。

从你的π日狂欢中抽出一点时间，欣赏一下英格兰康沃尔新石器时代墓室无意中形成的π符号。当早晨的阳光温暖着拉尼恩·库伊特的古老石头时，我们不可能不去想它是谁建造的，是如何建造的，因为它比金属工具更早，比埃及的金字塔还要古老。当然，各种理论比比皆是，但π是否也会参与其中呢？

七姐妹悬崖上的警卫小屋，英国东萨塞克斯郡 (© Paul Daniels/Alamy)

东萨塞克斯郡的白色悬崖

安格尔西岛上的Tŵr Mawr 灯塔，英国威尔士 Tŵr Mawr lighthouse on Llanddwyn Island, Anglesey, Wales (© Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images)

Saint Dwynwen's Day

Love is in the air on Llanddwyn Island at the southern tip of Anglesey, a much bigger island just off the north-west coast of Wales. Each year on January 25, Cupid aims his arrow toward the people of Wales who celebrate St. Dwynwen's Day–the Welsh version of St. Valentine's Day. St. Dwynwen is Wales' patron saint of lovers, although she was rather unlucky in that department after falling head over heels for a man she wasn't allowed to marry. The 5th-century princess' heartache led her to dedicate her life to God and pray for true lovers to have better fortune than her own. In return, Dwynwen became a nun and set up a convent here on Llanddwyn.

Despite its name, Llanddwyn Island is cut off from Anglesey's mainland only during very high tides. Since the 19th century, it has been home to Tŵr Mawr lighthouse (meaning 'great tower' in Welsh). The design of the lighthouse, seen in our photo today, is inspired by the area's many windmills. Just out of frame, you will find the remains of the church Dwynwen founded, along with a well named after her. It became a place of pilgrimage following her death. Legend has it that the well is home to sacred fish that can predict whether couples' relationships will succeed.

圣德温节

在安格西岛南端的兰德温岛上，爱在空中飘荡。安格西岛是威尔士西北海岸附近一个更大的岛屿。每年的1月25日，丘比特都会把箭射向威尔士人，他们庆祝圣德温节——威尔士版的圣瓦伦丁节。圣德温是威尔士的情人守护神，尽管她在那个部门很不幸，因为她被一个不允许嫁给的男人迷住了。这位五世纪公主的心痛促使她将自己的一生献给上帝，并祈祷真正的情人拥有比自己更好的财富。作为回报，德温温成为了一名修女，并在兰德温建立了一所修道院。

尽管兰德温岛名为兰德温岛，但只有在涨潮时，它才与安格西岛的大陆隔绝。自19世纪以来，它一直是Tŵr Mawr灯塔（威尔士语中的“大塔”意思）的所在地。我们今天的照片中看到的灯塔的设计灵感来自该地区的许多风车。刚走出画面，你会发现德温温创建的教堂的遗迹，以及一座以她的名字命名的教堂。她死后，这里成了朝圣之地。传说这口井是圣鱼的家园，可以预测夫妻关系是否会成功。

薄雾中的格拉斯顿伯里托尔，英格兰萨默塞特郡 Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, England (© DEEPOL by plainpicture/Adam Burton)

古老的水青冈树，英国北安普顿郡 (© Andrew Baskott/Alamy)

托利莫尔森林公园的弗利桥，英国北爱尔兰 (© Adrian McGlynn/Alamy)

史诺多尼亚国家公园的Capel Curig，英国威尔士 Capel Curig in Snowdonia National Park, Wales, United Kingdom (© Sebastian Wasek/Sime/eStock Photo)

A Welsh wonder turns 70

Here on the west coast of Great Britain, we're enjoying views of the windswept uplands and jagged peaks that surround the small village of Capel Curig in the heart of Snowdonia National Park. Renowned for its rugged and mountainous landscape, Snowdonia is the largest national park in Wales and home to over 26,000 people—and even more sheep—the wooly farm animals outnumber people three to one in Wales. About 60% of the park's population speak Welsh, one of Europe's oldest languages, and today they will be wishing this spectacular setting a 'pen-blwydd hapus' (happy birthday) as Snowdonia celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Established on October 18, 1951 as the first national park in Wales, Snowdonia boasts nine mountain ranges that cover just over half the park's 823 square miles. Its most popular peak is Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa in the local Welsh tongue), the tallest mountain in Wales and England, which you can see in the background of our photo. At 3,560 feet, Snowdon is one of 15 mountains within the park that top 3,000 feet, and they're clustered close enough together to make it possible to reach all 15 summits within 24 hours, a challenge known as the Welsh 3000s.

威尔士奇迹70岁

在英国西海岸，我们可以欣赏到斯诺多尼亚国家公园中心的卡佩尔·库里小村庄周围被风吹过的高地和参差不齐的山峰。斯诺登尼亚以其崎岖多山的景观而闻名，是威尔士最大的国家公园，居住着26000多人，甚至更多的绵羊。在威尔士，羊毛农场动物的数量比人多三倍。大约60%的公园人口讲威尔士语，威尔士语是欧洲最古老的语言之一。今天，在斯诺多尼亚庆祝其70周年之际，他们将祝愿这一壮观的场景成为“彭·布吕德·哈布斯”（生日快乐）。

斯诺登尼亚于1951年10月18日建立，是威尔士的第一个国家公园，拥有九座山脉，占地823平方英里，略超过公园面积的一半。它最受欢迎的山峰是斯诺登（当地威尔士语中的Yr Wyddfa），这是威尔士和英格兰最高的山峰，你可以在我们的照片背景中看到。斯诺登海拔3560英尺，是公园内海拔3000英尺的15座山峰之一，它们聚集在一起，足以在24小时内到达所有15座山峰，这一挑战被称为威尔士3000山脉。

侏罗纪时期的鱼龙化石，英国多塞特 An ichthyosaur fossil of the Jurassic period, Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, Lyme Regis, Dorset, England (© Christopher Jones/Alamy)

Celebrating a young girl's age-old discovery

When 12-year-old Mary Anning uncovered the complete skeleton of a fish-like creature near her home on England's southern coast in 1811, extinction was a shaky idea in science. Fossils were nothing new—everything dies and leaves remains, after all. But could an entire species really die off? Were more of these 17-foot sea monsters lurking in the depths of the English Channel?

The fact that ichthyosaurs like this went extinct 90 million years ago seems obvious today (which, by the way, is National Fossil Day). But though such definite answers were still only suspicions during Mary Anning's lifetime, she persisted with paleontology. Her prolific fossil finds fueled both public interest and scientific understanding, and she even discovered two more species in her 20s: the pterodactyl and the plesiosaur. Though she died young at 47, largely denied recognition as a woman in Victorian society, her influence endures like the fossils that fascinated her.

庆祝一个年轻女孩的古老发现

1811年，当12岁的玛丽·安宁（Mary Anning）在她位于英格兰南部海岸的家附近发现了一具鱼形生物的完整骨架时，灭绝在科学上是一个不可靠的想法。化石并不是什么新鲜事，毕竟，一切都会死去，树叶也会留下。但整个物种真的会灭绝吗？这些17英尺高的海怪中有更多潜伏在英吉利海峡深处吗？

像这样的鱼龙在9000万年前灭绝的事实在今天看来是显而易见的（顺便说一句，这是国家化石日）。但尽管在玛丽·安宁的一生中，这些明确的答案仍然只是怀疑，但她坚持使用古生物学。她丰富的化石发现激发了公众兴趣和科学理解，她甚至在20多岁的时候又发现了两个物种：翼手龙和蛇颈龙。尽管她英年早逝，享年47岁，在维多利亚时代基本上被否认是一名女性，但她的影响就像让她着迷的化石一样持久。

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