Why is 'x' the unknown? | Terry Moore

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Jenny Zurawell

Prevoditelj: Svjetlana Nevescanin Recezent: Suzana Baric

I have the answer to a question that we've all asked.

Imam odgovor na pitanje koje smo svi postavili.

The question is,

Pitanje je:

Why is it that the letter X

Zašto slovo X

represents the unknown?

označava nepoznato?

Now I know we learned that in math class,

Znam kako smo to učili na satu matematike,

but now it's everywhere in the culture --

ali sad je to svepristuno --

The X prize, the X-Files,

X nagrada, Dosjei X,

Project X, TEDx.

Projekt X, TEDx.

Where'd that come from?

Odakle to?

About six years ago

Prije jedno šest godina,

I decided that I would learn Arabic,

odlučio sam učiti arapski,

which turns out to be a supremely logical language.

koji je izuzeto logičan jezik.

To write a word or a phrase

Pisanje riječi ili fraze

or a sentence in Arabic

ili rečenice na arapskom

is like crafting an equation,

slično je postavljanju jednadžbe,

because every part is extremely precise

jer svaki dio iznimno je precizan

and carries a lot of information.

i nosi mnoštvo informacija.

That's one of the reasons

To je jedan od razloga

so much of what we've come to think of

zašto je ono što smatramo

as Western science and mathematics and engineering

zapadnjačkom znanošću, matematikom i tehnikom

was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era

zaista i polučilo rezultate u prvim stoljećima naše ere,

by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.

a potječe od Perzijanaca, Arapa i Turaka.

This includes the little system in Arabic

To uključuje i jedan mali sustav koji se na arapskom

called al-jebra.

zove al-jebra.

And al-jebr roughly translates to

A al-jebr grubo prevedeno je:

"the system for reconciling disparate parts."

"sustav za usklađivanje nespojivih dijelova".

Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.

Al-jebr je na kraju dospjela u engleski kao algebra.

One example among many.

Jedan od mnogih primjera.

The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom

Arapski tekstovi koji su sadržavali ovu matematičku mudrost

finally made their way to Europe --

konačno su dospjeli u Europu --

which is to say Spain --

tj. u Španjolsku --

in the 11th and 12th centuries.

u 11. i 12. stoljeću.

And when they arrived

A kad su tamo dospjeli,

there was tremendous interest

zavladao je golemi interes

in translating this wisdom

za prevođenje ove mudrosti

into a European language.

na europske jezike.

But there were problems.

Ali pojavili su se problemi.

One problem

Jedan od problema

is there are some sounds in Arabic

bio je što se neki glasovi u arapskom

that just don't make it through a European voice box

ne mogu proizvesti u europskim glasnicama

without lots of practice.

bez napornog vježbanja.

Trust me on that one.

Vjerujte mi.

Also, those very sounds

Uz to, ti glasovi

tend not to be represented

nisu se mogli prikazati

by the characters that are available in European languages.

slovima koja su postojala u europskim jezicima.

Here's one of the culprits.

Evo jednog od krivaca.

This is the letter sheen,

Ovo je slovo SHeen,

and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."

i stvara zvuk za koji mi mislimo da je SH -- "š".

It's also the very first letter

To je i prvo slovo

of the word shayun,

riječi shalan (šalan),

which means "something"

koja znači "nešto",

just like the the English word "something" --

baš kao i hrvatska riječ "nešto" --

some undefined, unknown thing.

neku nedefiniranu, nepoznatu stvar.

Now in Arabic,

E sad, u arapskom,

we can make this definite

možemo je učiniti određenom

by adding the definite article "al."

dodavanjem određenog člana "al".

So this is al-shayun --

Pa je to al-shalan --

the unknown thing.

baš ta nepoznata stvar.

And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,

A ta riječ se pojavljuje kroz cijelu prvobitnu metematiku,

such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.

kao što je to i u ovom izvođenju dokaza iz 10. stoljeća.

The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars

Problem za srednjovjekovne španjolske učenjake,

who were tasked with translating this material

kojima je bio dodijeljen zadatak prevođenja ovog materijala,

is that the letter sheen and the word shayun

bio je u tome što se slovo SHeen i riječ shalan

can't be rendered into Spanish

ne mogu prenijeti u španjolski,

because Spanish doesn't have that SH,

jer španjolski nema taj SH,

that "sh" sound.

taj "š" glas.

So by convention,

Stoga su dogovorom,

they created a rule in which

stvorili pravilo po kojem su

they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,

posudili CK glas, "k" glas,

from the classical Greek

od Starih Grka,

in the form of the letter Kai.

u obliku slova Kai.

Later when this material was translated

Kasnije kad se ovaj materijal preveo

into a common European language,

u referentni eurospki jezik,

which is to say Latin,

a to je latinski,

they simply replaced the Greek Kai

jednostavno je grčko slovo Kai

with the Latin X.

zamijenjeno latinskim X.

And once that happened,

A kad se to dogodilo,

once this material was in Latin,

kad je materijal bio na latinskom,

it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks

postao je temeljem matematičkih udžbenika

for almost 600 years.

u razdoblju od gotovo 600 godina.

But now we have the answer to our question.

Ali, sad imamo odgovor na naše pitanje.

Why is it that X is the unknown?

Zašto je X oznaka za nepoznato?

X is the unknown

X je nepoznato,

because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.

jer ne možete reći "š" na španjolskom.

(Laughter)

(Smijeh)

And I thought that was worth sharing.

Smatrao sam kako ovo vrijedi podijeliti.

(Applause)

(Pljesak)