While most passenger cars have some kind ofartificial speed limits imposed by the engine computer, the ultimate physicallimit to a car's top speed comes from air resistance. This type of dragincreases with the square of speed; at some point, a car doesn't have enoughengine power to push through the air any faster.

虽然绝大部分轿车的发动机控制器都会有意限制最高速度，但汽车最高时速的终极物理限制在于空气阻力。这种阻力与速度的平方成正比，在某个速度下，再怎么踩油门汽车也不会再加速了。

If you did force a sedan to go faster thanits top speed-perhaps by reusing the magical accelerator from the relativisticbaseball-the speed bump would be the least of your problems.

但如果你真的迫使一辆小轿车——比如通过使用光速棒球中出现的魔力加速器——以高于其最高时速的速度行驶，那么减速带会是你所有问题里最不重要的一个。

Cars generate lift. The air flowing arounda car exerts all kinds of forces on it.

因为汽车会产生升力，流经汽车表面的空气会对其施加各种各样的力。

Where did all these arrows come from?

这些箭头是从哪儿来的？

The lift forces are relatively minor atnormal highway speeds, but at higher speeds they become substantial.

在普通的高速公路时速下，升力相对来说微不足道，但在极高的速度下它们就会产生非常大的影响。

In a Formula One car equipped withairfoils, this force pushes downward, holding the car against the track. In asedan, they lift it up.

在装有扰流板的F1赛车上，这股力将赛车往赛道上压，使赛车保持在赛道上。而在普通的轿车上，这股力会将汽车抬起来。

Among NASCAR fans, there's frequently talkof a 200-mph “liftoff speed”if the car starts to spin. Other branches of auto racing have seenspectacular backflip crashes when the aerodynamics don't work out as planned.

在全国运动汽车竞赛协会，每小时200英里（约322千米）被普遍认为是汽车的“起飞速度”——此时车会开始旋转。在其他种类的赛车比赛中，我们看到过壮观的后空翻式车祸，这就是汽车的空气动力学特性并没有像预想的那样发挥作用的后果。

The bottom line is that in the range of 150–300 mph, a typical sedan would lift off the ground, tumble, andcrash . . . before you even hit the bump.

我觉得最低在每小时150英里（约241千米）到300英里（约483千米）这个区间内，一辆普通的小轿车就会腾空而起，华丽丽地开始空翻，然后撞毁……在此之前，你甚至连减速带都还没撞上呢。

BREAKING: Child, Unidentified Creature inBicycle Basket Hit and Killed by Car

突发消息：小孩和自行车篮中的未知生物被车撞击致死。

If you kept the car from taking off, theforce of the wind at those speeds would strip away the hood, side panels, andwindows. At higher speeds, the car itself would be disassembled, and might evenburn up like a spacecraft reentering the atmosphere.

如果你竭力保持车子不飞起来，在这种速度下，风力会掀开引擎盖、车体侧面以及车窗。在更高的速度下，车子本身会解体，或者像重返大气层的太空飞船那样直接烧毁。

What's the ultimate limit?

终极上限是多少？

In the state of Pennsylvania, drivers maysee $2 added to their speeding ticket for every mile per hour by which theybreak the speed limit.

在宾夕法尼亚州，如果你超速吃了罚单，时速每超过限速1英里就要多交2美元罚金。

Therefore, if you drove a car over aPhiladelphia speed bump at 90 percent of the speed of light, in addition todestroying the city . . .

因此，如果你驾车以90％的光速压过费城的减速带，除了会毁了整座城市之外……

. . . you could expect a speeding ticket of$1.14 billion.

……你还会收到一张11.4亿美元的罚单。

1 Like anyone with a physics background, Ido all my calculations in SI units, but I've gotten too many US speedingtickets to write this answer in anything but miles per hour; it's just beenburned into my brain. Sorry!

1．和所有具有物理背景的人一样，我的所有计算都使用SI单位制。但是我在美国吃了太多的英制单位罚单，以至于这个答案我只能用英里每小时去写。有点刻进我脑子里了。对不起！

2 Just Google “hit a curb at 60.”

2．去谷歌上搜索一下“hit the curb at 60”。

3 There are cars everywhere. Go outsidewith a ruler and check.

3．车子到处都是，不信拿把尺子去量一下。

4 At high speeds, you can easily losecontrol even without hitting a bump. Joey Huneycutt's 220-mph crash left hisCamaro a burned-out hulk.

4．在高速情况下车子极易失控，甚至都不用撞上减速带。乔伊•霍尼卡特的大黄蜂在以220英里的时速撞毁后被烧得只剩一具空壳。