除了文化因素，中国人为什么用筷子而非刀叉（一）？

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Answer Wiki
Easier to cleanen masse.

方便把他们放一起清洗。（译注：筷子一次洗一大把）

You can make apair if you find yourself in a pinch.

情急之下你自己也可以捣鼓一双筷子出来。

As with spoons,grasping food does not modify food textures the way piercing food does.

和用勺子一样，夹起食物不会像叉食物一样破坏食物的纹理并给食物留下一个个小窟窿。

Chopsticksprovide less utensil-to-mouth contact, highlighting the pure flavors andtextures of the food. Steel utensil do not affect flavor, but other materialsmight.

筷子减少了食物先接触盛餐器皿再送到嘴巴里这个环节，最大程度地保留了食物本来的风味和质感。铁质器皿不会影响到风味，但其他材料的器皿可能会。

Increase ddevelopment of manual dexterity.

促进了人敏捷度和灵活性的开发。

One-handedeating allows freedom of usage for the other hand, just as if using a spoon.

只用一只手吃给另一只手的使用腾出了空间，比如说你另一只手在可以同一时刻用勺子。

Extra reach whengetting food from communal platters.

当你把食物从公共餐盘取出来的时候，用筷子给你提供了额外的距离。（译注：想象下西方人拿着短刀叉在半空中挥舞却死活够不着桌子中央的北京烤鸭。）

Increasedefficiency when transferring foods from platter to plate, unless rice, peas orliquids are concerned, in which case a spoon is a clear winner.

在把食物从装盛的盘子里盛到餐碟子里时筷子具有更高的效率，如果不考虑盛米饭、豌豆或者舀汤汁时勺子更有优势的话。

Some diners mayeat slower, which may make food taste better and may cause them to eat less.And eating slower means better digestion

吃饭的速度会因为用筷子而变慢，从而让食物的滋味在舌尖能更好的绽放并且使人吃的更少。吃得更慢就可以消化得更好。.

Somefoods are easier to grasp with chopsticks (single long beans, noodles in soup,etc.)

一些食物更容易被筷子夹起来（长豆角，汤面等等）。

Increaseshygiene and decreases messiness when eating some 'finger-foods.'

更卫生，避免了用手吃把脏东西吃进肚子的情况发生。

Máté Kovács,curious cat
Updated Sep 21
Chopsticks havea non-obvious advantage over a fork and a knife. This advantage will becomemore widely appreciated with the growth of space tourism. Yep, that’s right. Inspace, chopsticks are more practical than a knife and a fork.

筷子比起刀叉有一些不明显的优点。这种优点被太空旅行事业的发展所看重。是的，没错。在太空中用筷子比用刀叉要更实用。

I predict thatchopsticks will be vastly more popular as the choice of utensil in space. Theyaren’t widely used in space yet because most of the human spaceflight to datewas done by nations who have a cultural preference for other utensils. As spacebecomes more accessible to people from other cultures, the usage of forks andknives in space will be relegated to a fun fact in history books.

我有预感，筷子会被更广泛地被采用为太空餐具。筷子迄今为止没有广泛地应用于太空中是由于航天事业是由各国各自开展的，不同国家的宇航员对餐具有着不同的偏好。当太空事业真正面向不同文化背景的人们开放时，刀叉的使用将成为有趣的历史往事。

What’simpractical about using a fork and a knife in space?

在太空中用刀叉有什么不方便呢？

First of all, tocut a piece of food in space with a fork and a knife, you need to stab it withthe fork then slice it with the knife. Both of these actions require you topress down on the piece of food you’re cutting. And that’s a problem rightthere, because Newton’s third law predicts that when you push something, thatsomething also pushes you back. Down here on the surface that isn’t a problem,because the piece of food is supported from below while Earth’s gravity isconstantly pulling you down. In micro-gravity (e.g. in a spacecraft in lowEarth orbit) however, where both you and the piece of food are in free fall,you’d very noticeably push yourself away from the table while stabbing the foodwith a fork, let alone cutting it with a knife. You’d have to hook your feetunder a railing and pull yourself towards the table using your legs, whichsounds rather annoying.

首先，为了在太空中用刀叉把食物切成很多块，你需要用叉戳着食物然后用刀切开。这两种动作的完成都需要把你切的那块食物给牢牢按住。这就是问题所在了，由于牛顿第三定律，你在推某样东西的时候要受到它的反作用被推回去。在地表这可不算个事儿，因为在你被重力往下拉的同时，食物也受到了下方的支持力。然而，在微重力的环境下（飞船在近地轨道上飞行时），你和你的饭菜都在做自由落体运动，你用叉子戳食物的时候很显然会被桌子一下推开，更别提用刀去切它了。这听起来很让人光火，因为你不得不用你的脚勾住护栏，然后用你的胳膊朝着面前的桌子把自己拽回去。

Long storyshort, cutting food in space isn’t easy. Likely for that very reason,non-liquid space food is already packaged as small bite-sized chunks that canbe eaten without cutting. That makes knives unnecessary. Forks are also rarelyused for stabbing, because the water-content of the food makes it simply stickto utensils, which means that a spoon works just as well. Also, chopsticks.

概括起来就是，太空中切食物非常困难。正是因为这个原因，非液体太空食物都会被做成一小块一小块的，这样就可以不用切直接吃了。这就没必要带刀了。叉子也很少被用来叉食物，食物中的水分会使食物残渣容易附着在餐具上，勺子和筷子也同理。

What’s practicalabout chopsticks in space?

那么筷子在太空中有什么实用的地方呢？

Most peopledescribe the experience of eating with chopsticks as “having really longfingers that you don’t mind getting sticky.” As it turns out, that’s exactlywhat you want in space. Anything you can eat with your fingers, you can eatwith chopsticks; they’re extremely versatile. In fact, they’re more versatilein space than down here! Don’t believe me? Watch astronaut Don Pettit drink teawith chopsticks:

有人这样形容用筷子吃饭的体验：就像是“拥有了一双不用担心因为取菜而变得黏糊的长手指”。这就表明了，但凡你用手抓着吃的东西，你用筷子也能吃；筷子很万能。实际上，他们在太空中比在地面上要更好使！不相信我？看看宇航员东佩蒂特是怎么用筷子喝茶的吧。

“But you canalso do that with a fork, or even a knife!”, I hear you say. Sure, but can youeat pieces of Cheetos straight out of the bag with a fork and a knife? Exactly!

“但你用叉子，甚至刀也能这样干！”我会听到你如是回答。没错，但是你能直接用刀叉吃掉袋子里的奇多（美国知名膨化食品品牌）吗？当然不能！

Here’s Don Pettit’s testimony of using chopsticks in space:

下面是佩蒂特对于在太空中使用筷子的看法：

“I like toeat with chopsticks, and I bring a pair on every flight. Like some prehensileextension of my fingers, they allow me to pull food out of its gooey pouchwithout getting sticky fingers. In weightlessness I can manipulate a huge chunkof food — maybe an agglomeration of ravioli that would normally fall apartunder the influence of gravity. Here the pieces stay loosely connected, like aminiature collection of asteroid debris.”

我喜欢用筷子吃饭，我每次上天前都会带上一双。筷子就像是我手指的延伸，而且很好抓握，他们让我可以在不弄脏双手的情况下把吃的从它们那黏糊糊的大袋子里拿出来。在失重环境下我可以夹住很大块的食物——即使是一团在无重力下很容易分解的意式馄饨（译注：？）借助筷子，食物可以松散地保持聚合，就像迷你小行星碎片堆那样。

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Here’s some more cool footage of Don Pettit using chopsticks aboardthe ISS, dunking crackers in honey and peanut butter:

下面是一些佩蒂特在国际空间站上使用筷子吃蜂蜜花生饼干的酷炫镜头：

Could you do that with a fork and a knife?

这些你用刀叉也能做得到吗？

RichardO'Connell, lives in China (2007-present)
Answered May 26
Imagine yourhand had a really long index finger and thumb and how useful that would be forpicking up food? Now imagine they were detachable and you could clean themready for your next meal.

想象下你拥有非常长的食指和大拇指，这对于抓取食物该有多大的用处？现在想象他们还可以分开好让你清洗它们来为下顿饭做准备。

This is exactlywhat chopsticks are. Super long, detachable fingers and thumbs for eating food.

你脑海里想象的这幅画面正是筷子的样子。炒鸡长，可拆卸的，用来吃饭的食指和大拇指。

They’re notactually part of your body, you don’t even need to make your hands a mess frompicking up food.

他们实际上并不是你身体的一部分，因此你不用担心它们被食物给弄脏。

It also helpsthat Chinese cooking tends to chop food into the perfect sizes perfect forgrabbing with your finger and thumb-like sticks.

这同样也促使饭菜通常会被做成了易于被筷子夹起的大小。