車、船、飛機載的那一份
這是最原始的一邊：貨運業要分清楚「車子多重」和「貨多重」，因為只有貨會賺錢。
noun · B2
The goods, passengers or equipment that a vehicle carries, or the weight of what it is able to carry.
載運量；載運的貨物
核心畫面
You can think of payload as a line drawn through the middle of anything that carries something else. On one side sits the carrier: the truck, the rocket, the wrapper around a message, the code that copies itself. None of that is the point. On the other side sits the reason the trip happened at all — the crates, the satellite, the data, the part that acts. Payload always names that second side. Whenever you meet the word, the useful question is the same one: what was this thing built to deliver?
payload 可以想成在一件事物中間畫的一條線。線的一邊是載具：卡車、火箭、訊息外面的包裝、會自我複製的程式。那一…更多收起
payload 可以想成在一件事物中間畫的一條線。線的一邊是載具：卡車、火箭、訊息外面的包裝、會自我複製的程式。那一半都不是重點。線的另一邊，是這趟之所以存在的理由：那些貨箱、那顆衛星、那筆資料、真正動手的那一段。payload 指的永遠是第二邊。所以看到這個字，可以先問同一個問題：這東西是為了送什麼而存在的？From the word’s history
From pay plus load, from the early twentieth century: originally the part of a cargo that earns the money.
由 pay 加上 load 組成，出現在二十世紀初，本來指一批貨裡真正會賺錢的那一部分。
Wiktionary entry for payload (evidence packet: From pay + load. From the early 20th century), together with its sense 'that part of a cargo that produces revenue'.
Three branches
火箭、飛彈送出去的那一份
同一條線，只是載具換成會飛的東西：引擎和導引都只是手段，被送到定點的那一份才是目的。
noun · C1
The thing a rocket, spacecraft or missile is built to carry and deliver — a satellite, an instrument, supplies, or a warhead — as opposed to the parts that make it fly and steer.
酬載；搭載物
資料裡真正的那一份
電腦把同一條線畫在訊息上：外面的標頭是包裝，裡面的內容才是要送的東西。
noun · B2
In computing, the part of a message, file or data stream that holds the real information, rather than the parts that address it, label it, or move it around.
資料本體；傳輸內容