我的世界本周方块：磁石

One of the most useful items in Minecraft is the compass – an item we featured about a year ago in our Taking Inventory column. “They serve a single purpose – pointing to the world spawn point,” we wrote. “If you’re planning on wandering off into the wilderness, then it’s highly recommended to take one with you so you can actually find your way back home again.”
在Minecraft中有个十分有用的物品：指南针。我们一年前在背包盘点栏目中聊过它的，还记得吗？指南针的作用的很明确——指明方向，“我们曾写到。如果你打算探索荒野，那么请带上指南针，为你找到回家的方向。”

But compasses have a downside – they only work in the Overworld. The same mysteries of Minecraft physics that cause blocks to stay suspended in the air when you mine out the block below them also cause compasses to go haywire in the Nether and the End.
但是指南针有一个缺点——它们只能在主世界工作。能让方块漂浮的神奇的MC物理定律会告诉你，当你来到下界或末地，指南针将会乱转。

So in the most recent patch, the Nether Update, we added something new. Lodestone is a block that lets you alter the place compasses point to, and it can be used in all three dimensions, making it suddenly worth taking a compass with you again.
所以在最近的更新中，我们搞了点新花样。磁石是一种能用于更改指南针指向的方块（磁化指南针，让其指向磁石），它能让指南针在三个的维度中都能使用，这样一来指南针再一次有了携带的价值。

You’ll often find lodestone in chests in bastion remnants, but you can also make it yourself with a netherite ingot surrounded by chiseled stone bricks in a crafting grid. To make netherite, you’ll need gold and netherite scraps, which in turn are smelted from ancient debris. You’ll need a diamond pickaxe to collect ancient debris.
你不仅可以在堡垒遗迹的箱子中发现磁石，还可以自己通过在工作台中用錾制石砖围绕下界合金锭来制作。为了制造合金锭你需要黄金以及下界合金碎片，它们可以通过冶炼远古残骸获得。挖掘远古残骸需要使用钻石镐。

Once you’ve got a lodestone block, plop it down on the group, whip out your compass, and mash the “use” button. You’ll know it worked if the compass gets an enchantmenty sheen to it. If the lodestone gets broken, or is in another dimension, the compass won’t work at all.
当你获得了磁石方块，将其放在地上，掏出你的指南针，再按下“使用”按钮。一旦看到指南针上有附魔的光泽出现，你就能知道磁石起作用了。但如果磁石被破坏或者你去到了另一个维度，那指南针就不能用了。

In the real world, lodestones are another name for naturally-occurring magnets. These rare finds, made of the mineral magnetite, attract both pieces of iron and curious onlookers.

Most magnetite isn’t actually magnetic, and if you magnetise it then it doesn’t stay that way for very long. But occasionally impurities in their crystalline structure allow them to stay magnetised for much longer. This leads to the question of how they become magnetised in the first place. This is something science doesn’t have a very good answer to yet. The leading theory is that they capture the extreme magnetic fields generated when lightning strikes the ground, which is supported by the fact that lodestones are only really found near the surface of the Earth, not far underground.

However they’re formed, humans have been using lodestones since at least the 6th century BC, when Ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus wrote about them. Independently, Chinese scholars wrote about them in the 4th century BC “Book of the Devil Master Valley”, and were using them for geomancy by the 2nd century BC.

The discovery of a lodestone artefact created by the Olmec people of what is now Mexico suggests they may have been using them for more than a thousand years prior to that too, but history doesn’t record what they were used for – perhaps to orient their temples, dwellings or tombs.

So next time you set off on a journey through the Nether, do yourself a favour and set a compass on a lodestone next to your portal so you can find your way home again. You’ll be glad you did.

来源：问谛居