While not everyone will have pondered the subject while staring out of the window during a flight, the question as to why aeroplanes have circular windows rather than square ones is interesting.
雖然不是每個(gè)人都會(huì)在飛行中凝視窗外的時(shí)候思索一個(gè)問題：為什么舷窗是圓形的而不是方形的。但這個(gè)問題很有趣。

Over the years, aerospace engineering has made huge leaps in aeroplane technology, meaning planes can carry more passengers and go faster. The planes have also changed shape to increase safety – including the windows.
多年來，航空航天工程在飛機(jī)技術(shù)上取得了巨大的飛躍，這意味著飛機(jī)可以運(yùn)載更多的乘客，飛行速度更快。同時(shí)，為了提高飛機(jī)的安全性，飛機(jī)在外形上也做出了相應(yīng)的改變。舷窗，便是變化之一。

In the 1950s, when jetliners were starting to become mainstream, the De Havilland Comet[1] came into fashion. With a pressurized cabin, it was able to go higher and faster than other aircraft.
20世紀(jì)50年代，噴氣式客機(jī)開始成為主流，德·哈維蘭“彗星”客機(jī)便是當(dāng)時(shí)的主要機(jī)型。增壓座艙的誕生使得噴氣式飛機(jī)可以比其他飛機(jī)飛得更高更快。

[1] 德·哈維蘭“彗星”客機(jī)，由英國哈維蘭公司研發(fā)，于1949年出廠的噴氣民航客機(jī)，是世界上第一種以噴氣發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)為動(dòng)力的民航客機(jī)。

However, the plane had square windows and in 1953 two planes fell apart in the air, killing 56 people in total.
然而，該機(jī)型舷窗是方形的，1953年，該機(jī)型兩架客機(jī)在空中解體，共造成56人死亡。

The reason for the crashes? The windows.
悲劇發(fā)生的原因是什么？答案是：舷窗。

Where there’s a corner, there’s a weak spot. Windows, having four corners, have four potential weak spots, making them likely to crash under stress – such as air pressure.
哪里有拐角，哪里就有弱點(diǎn)。方形舷窗有四個(gè)角，就有著四個(gè)潛在的薄弱點(diǎn)，使它們很可能在壓力作用下破裂，比如大氣壓力。

By curving the window, the stress that would eventually crack the window corner is distributed and the likelihood of it breaking is reduced.
因此，讓窗緣線條彎曲，來分散窗口四角的壓力，從而降低了窗戶破碎的可能性。

來源：英語世界
作者：莫麗·古德費(fèi)勒
翻譯：吳漪妮