一在《你一生的故事》这篇小说的后记里,特德·姜简单交代了他的创作初衷,来自于对现代物理学变分原理的喜爱。小说中也呈现了变分原理最简单的应用,即费马最少时间原理。一束光在水中发生折射,传统的解释是说,因为光在传播中遇到不同介质,介质折射率的不同改变了光的角度。但费马原理则认为,这道光束,在它选定路径出发之前,事先就知道自己最终将 In the postscript to the novel “The Story of Your Life,” Ted Ginger briefly explained his original intention of creating a favorite of the variational principle of modern physics. The novel also presents the simplest application of the variational principle, that is, Fermat least time principle. A beam of light is refracted in water. The traditional explanation is that the difference in refractive index of a medium changes the angle of light because the light encounters different media during its propagation. Fermat’s principle, however, believes that this beam of light, before its departure from its chosen path, knows in advance that it will eventually