Chapter 86 The train starts!

So Ying Zheng and his companions looked at the dashboard in front of the cab and were very curious about what these things were.

Ying Zheng asked, "Young man Zhao, can you introduce this train to us?"

Zhao Yi pointed to the simple dashboard on the control panel and introduced: "These are the devices for controlling the train. They are called the control panel."

Everyone heard this and thought to themselves.

Driving console?
It's very similar to the driving seat of a horse-drawn carriage.

But the two are simply not on the same level.

A horse-drawn carriage is far from comparable to the train in front of us.

The Qin Dynasty could produce thousands or even tens of thousands of horse-drawn carriages every year, but without Zhao Yi, it would be impossible for the Qin Dynasty to produce a single train.

Let alone trains, Daqin couldn't even produce human-powered railcars.

Because these things all involve the mechanical structure that Zhao Yi mentioned.

It can be said that in the entire Qin Dynasty, except Zhao Yi, no one understands mechanical structure at all.

The current structure of the Daqin Association is based on the mortise and tenon structure of carpenters.

After all, the Qin Dynasty couldn't even produce iron, let alone machinery.

Zhao Yi continued, "And those glass windows on the driving platform are called dashboards. They are used to observe various data of the train. For example, water temperature, pressure and speed."

Ying Zheng raised his hand and asked, "Wait a minute, Zhao boy, what is the speed you are talking about?"

After spending so much time with Zhao Yi, Ying Zheng no longer had any sense of responsibility and would ask questions whenever he didn't understand something.

After all, Zhao Yi may come up with a new concept at any time.

It's completely normal not to understand, and it's not stupid.

Zhao Yi explained: "Speed ​​is the distance traveled in one hour."

When Ying Zheng heard this, he keenly discovered the new concept that Zhao Yi mentioned - hours.

He was sure that the hour Zhao Yi mentioned was a completely new concept of time.

So Ying Zheng continued to ask: "Young man Zhao, is the time unit you use completely different from that of the Qin Dynasty?"

I didn’t expect that my scumbag dad was so perceptive and could realize this.

Because the timekeeping system commonly used in Daqin is still the hour.

The so-called time is to divide a day into twelve equal parts, namely the hour of midnight and the hour of midnight.

This twelve-hour system was used until the Qing Dynasty when it was replaced by the twenty-four-hour system.

The 24-hour system was first invented by the ancient Egyptians.

Compared to the 12-hour system, the 24-hour system is more accurate.

It is also subdivided into smaller time units of minutes and seconds.

This provides more precise and accurate time measurement, which is very important in various fields.

The scientific field requires more precise time units to record statistics, while the military, transportation and other fields also require precise time to coordinate and manage various aspects.

After all, the twelve-hour system is too vague.

So Zhao Yi briefly explained the 24-hour timekeeping system to Ying Zheng and the others.

After hearing this, Ying Zheng was deeply moved.

Is this kid Zhao really not an immortal?
Even the timekeeping system is different from that of the Qin Dynasty!
I feel that this guy Zhao Yi is not only different from Daqin in terms of timekeeping system, but also in other measurement units.

It’s the same as his simplified Chinese character.

So Ying Zheng asked tentatively, "Young man Zhao, are the various units of measurement in your Shahe Village different from those in the imperial court?"

Zhao Yi nodded and replied: "The measurement units used in Shahe Village are indeed different from those outside. Relatively speaking, the ones in the village are more accurate."

“For example, the commonly used unit of length in the village is meter.”

Ying Zheng asked doubtfully: "Rice?"

Ying Yinman also said, "Strange, isn't rice a kind of grain?" "Yes. How did it become a unit of measurement? Is it measured by the length of each grain of rice?" Wang Jian echoed.

Zhao Yi shook his head.

"The meter I'm talking about here is a unit of length measurement. One meter is equivalent to one forty millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole."

But I thought about how I had never explained the concepts of the equator and the poles to my scumbag dad and the others, and only briefly talked about the concept of the earth.

So Zhao Yi continued.

"And the equator and the poles that I'm talking about are geographical concepts."

"I once told you that the Earth is a ball."

Everyone who was listening on the side nodded when they heard this.

"The earth is an irregular sphere that is slightly flat on both sides and slightly bulging in the middle. The equator is the longest circumference line in the middle."

"At the same time, the equator is also the boundary that divides the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres, and where we are is in the northern hemisphere. The seas on the equator are usually windless, and the sea there is like a still lake, like a mirror."

Everyone was very surprised to hear this.

It turns out that there are still places in the sea!
In everyone's impression, the sea always has waves and is never calm.

But Zhao Yi actually said that there is an area in the sea where there are no waves and it is as calm as a mirror.

Everyone imagined what a still sea looked like.

Ying Zheng made up his mind that he must go and see what the still ocean at the equator was like.

The reason why Ying Zheng was so sure that there was an opportunity to go to the equator.

It’s because of Zhao Yi!
Ying Zheng has confidence in Zhao Yi!

Since Zhao Yi can build a steel behemoth like a train on land, he can definitely build a steel ship that can sail on the ocean.

"And the poles are where the sides of the Earth are slightly flattened."

Suddenly Ying Zheng and the others thought of something.

Since the unit of meter is calculated based on the distance from the equator to the pole.

This means Zhao Yi knows how big the earth is!
Wang Yujia asked curiously: "Zhao Yi, do you know how big the earth is?"

"Of course, the equator is about 5.1 kilometers long. So the surface area of ​​the earth is about million square kilometers," Zhao Yi replied.

really!

This kid Zhao Yi knows how big the earth is!

Is he really not an immortal?

Otherwise, how could Zhao Yi know how big the Earth's equator and surface area are?

This is something that no human can calculate at all.

No one could figure out how Zhao Yi calculated the size of the earth.

In fact, the method of measuring the earth is not as difficult as Ying Zheng and others thought.

We only need to measure the lengths between different locations and the angle of sunlight at each location, and then use mathematical calculations to determine the approximate size of the earth.

After Zhao Yi finished his introduction, he began to give orders to the driver to start the train.

"Let's drive to the farmland and back."

Then the blacksmith, who also served as the train driver, immediately pulled the lever.

Oh oh oh!
After a few whistles.

The train started moving.

The driver was monitoring the instrument data on the dashboard and recording them in a notebook. After all, this was the first trial run of the train, and he needed to collect all kinds of data in preparation for building the next train.

The train started moving with a series of clattering sounds and slowly accelerated towards the farmland...

(End of this chapter)