Why is 'x' the unknown? | Terry Moore

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Jenny Zurawell

Translator: Dana Retová Reviewer: Peter Štrba

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

Mám odpoveď na otázku, ktorú sme si všetci kládli.

The question is,

Tou otázkou je,

Why is it that the letter X

prečo sa neznáma

represents the unknown?

označuje písmenom x.

Now I know we learned that in math class,

Viem, že sme sa to učili na hodine matematiky,

but now it's everywhere in the culture --

ale teraz je to všade v kultúre --

The X prize, the X-Files,

Cena X, Akty X,

Project X, TEDx.

Projekt X, TEDx.

Where'd that come from?

Odkiaľ sa to zobralo?

About six years ago

Asi pred šiestimi rokmi

I decided that I would learn Arabic,

som sa rozhodol, že sa naučím po arabsky,

which turns out to be a supremely logical language.

a ukázalo sa, že je to ohromne logický jazyk.

To write a word or a phrase

Napísať slovo, alebo frázu,

or a sentence in Arabic

alebo vetu v arabčine

is like crafting an equation,

je ako zostrojovať rovnicu,

because every part is extremely precise

pretože každá časť je extrémne presná

and carries a lot of information.

a nesie veľa informácií.

That's one of the reasons

To jej jeden z dôvodov,

so much of what we've come to think of

prečo veľa z toho, čo považujeme

as Western science and mathematics and engineering

za západnú vedu, matematiku a inžinierstvo,

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

v skutočnosti vymysleli v prvých storočiach nášho letopočtu

by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.

Peržania a Arabi a Turci.

This includes the little system in Arabic

Toto zahŕňa malý systém v arabčine

called al-jebra.

zvaný al-džebra.

And al-jebr roughly translates to

A al-džebr voľne prekladáme ako

"the system for reconciling disparate parts."

"systém pre zladenie rôznorodých častí."

Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.

Al-džebr sa napokon dostal do angličtiny ako algebra.

One example among many.

Jeden príklad za všetky.

The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom

Arabské texty obsahujúce túto matematickú múdrosť

finally made their way to Europe --

sa konečne dostali do Európy --

which is to say Spain --

čo znamená do Španielska --

in the 11th and 12th centuries.

v 11tom a 12tom storočí.

And when they arrived

A keď prišli,

there was tremendous interest

vzbudili ohromný záujem

in translating this wisdom

o preklad tejto múdrosti

into a European language.

do európskeho jazyka.

But there were problems.

Ale malo to háčik.

One problem

Problém bol,

is there are some sounds in Arabic

že niektoré zvuky v arabčine

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

jednoducho európske ústa nezvládajú

without lots of practice.

bez náročného tréningu.

Trust me on that one.

To mi môžete veriť.

Also, those very sounds

A tie isté zvuky

tend not to be represented

sa nedajú zapísať

by the characters that are available in European languages.

písmenami, ktoré sú dostupné v európskych jazykoch.

Here's one of the culprits.

Tu je jeden z vinníkov.

This is the letter sheen,

Toto je písmeno šín,

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

a znie ako zvuk "š".

It's also the very first letter

Je to zároveň prvé písmeno

of the word shayun,

slova šalan,

which means "something"

ktoré znamená "niečo",

just like the the English word "something" --

tak ako naše slovo "niečo" --

some undefined, unknown thing.

nejaká nedefinovaná, neznáma vec.

Now in Arabic,

V arabčine

we can make this definite

to môžeme skonkrétniť

by adding the definite article "al."

pridaním určitého člena "al."

So this is al-shayun --

Čiže toto je al-šalan --

the unknown thing.

neznáma vec.

And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,

A toto je slovo, ktoré sa objavuje v rannej matematike,

such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.

ako napríklad v tejto derivácii odmocniny z 10. storočia.

The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars

Stredovekí španielski učenci,

who were tasked with translating this material

ktorí prekladali tento materiál, mali problém,

is that the letter sheen and the word shayun

že písmeno šín, a slovo šalan

can't be rendered into Spanish

sa v španielčine nedajú napísať ani vysloviť,

because Spanish doesn't have that SH,

pretože španielčina nemá "š",

that "sh" sound.

zvuk "š".

So by convention,

Takže sa dohodli

they created a rule in which

a vytvorili pravidlo, podľa ktorého

they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,

si požičali zvuk "k",

from the classical Greek

z klasickej gréčtiny

in the form of the letter Kai.

vo forme písmena Chí.

Later when this material was translated

Neskôr, keď sa materiál prekladal

into a common European language,

do bežného európskeho jazyka,

which is to say Latin,

čiže latinčiny,

they simply replaced the Greek Kai

iba vymenili grécke chí

with the Latin X.

za latinské x.

And once that happened,

A keď sa to stalo,

once this material was in Latin,

keď už bol materiál v latinčine,

it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks

vytvoril základ pre učebnice matematiky

for almost 600 years.

na skoro 600 rokov.

But now we have the answer to our question.

Ale teraz vieme odpoveď na našu otázku.

Why is it that X is the unknown?

Prečo je x neznámou?

X is the unknown

X označuje neznámu,

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

pretože v španielčine neviete vysloviť "š".

(Laughter)

(smiech)

And I thought that was worth sharing.

A myslel som, že to je myšlienka hodná šírenia.

(Applause)

(potlesk)