Why is 'x' the unknown? | Terry Moore

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Jenny Zurawell

Translator: Klavdija Cernilogar Reviewer: Irma Sutlic

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

Poznam odgovor na vprašanje, ki si ga vsi zastavljamo.

The question is,

Vprašanje je,

Why is it that the letter X

zakaj črka X

represents the unknown?

predstavlja tisto, kar je neznano.

Now I know we learned that in math class,

Seveda smo se o tem učili pri matematiki,

but now it's everywhere in the culture --

ampak dandanes je prisotno v vsej kulturi ...

The X prize, the X-Files,

X nagrada, dosjeji X

Project X, TEDx.

projekt X, TEDx.

Where'd that come from?

Odkod to izvira?

About six years ago

Pred kakimi šestimi leti

I decided that I would learn Arabic,

sem se odločil naučiti arabščino,

which turns out to be a supremely logical language.

ki je pravzaprav izjemno logičen jezik.

To write a word or a phrase

Pisanje besede ali fraze

or a sentence in Arabic

ali povedi v arabščini

is like crafting an equation,

je kot izklesovanje enačbe,

because every part is extremely precise

saj je vsak del skrajno precizen

and carries a lot of information.

in vsebuje veliko informacij.

That's one of the reasons

To je eden od razlogov,

so much of what we've come to think of

da so ogromno tega, kar razumemo

as Western science and mathematics and engineering

kot zahodno znanost, matematiko in inženirstvo,

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

v resnici v prvih nekaj stoletjih moderne dobe

by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.

razvili Perzijci, Arabci in Turki.

This includes the little system in Arabic

Sem spada tudi mali sistem, ki se v arabščini

called al-jebra.

imenuje al-džebr.

And al-jebr roughly translates to

Al-džebr lahko približno prevedemo kot

"the system for reconciling disparate parts."

"sistem, ki zbliža ločene dele".

Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.

Al-džebr je končno v angleščini postal algebra.

One example among many.

To je eden od mnogih primerov.

The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom

Arabska besedila s to matematično modrostjo

finally made their way to Europe --

so sčasoma prispela v Evropo,

which is to say Spain --

se pravi v Španijo,

in the 11th and 12th centuries.

v 11. in 12. stoletju.

And when they arrived

In ko so prišla,

there was tremendous interest

je zavladal velik interes,

in translating this wisdom

da bi to modrost prevedli

into a European language.

v evropski jezik.

But there were problems.

Ampak ni šlo brez težav.

One problem

Ena od njih je,

is there are some sounds in Arabic

da v arabščini obstajajo nekateri zvoki,

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

ki jih evropske glasilke enostavno ne obvladajo,

without lots of practice.

vsaj ne brez veliko vaje.

Trust me on that one.

Verjemite mi.

Also, those very sounds

Poleg tega ravno teh zvokov

tend not to be represented

ponavadi ne moremo zapisati

by the characters that are available in European languages.

s črkami, ki jih uporabljamo v evropskih jezikih.

Here's one of the culprits.

Tale je eden od takih.

This is the letter sheen,

To je črka šin,

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

in zveni tako kot šh.

It's also the very first letter

Je pa tudi prva črka

of the word shayun,

besede šalan,

which means "something"

kar pomeni "nekaj",

just like the the English word "something" --

tako kot naša "nekaj" ...

some undefined, unknown thing.

neka nedoločena, nedefinirana stvar.

Now in Arabic,

V arabščini

we can make this definite

jo naredimo določno tako,

by adding the definite article "al."

da dodamo določni člen "al".

So this is al-shayun --

Tole je torej al-šalan ...

the unknown thing.

neznana stvar.

And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,

Ta beseda se pojavlja skozi vso zgodnjo matematiko,

such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.

denimo v izvajanju dokazov iz 10. stoletja.

The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars

Težava za srednjeveške španske znanstvenike,

who were tasked with translating this material

ki so morali ta material prevesti, je bila,

is that the letter sheen and the word shayun

da črke šin in besede šalan

can't be rendered into Spanish

ni mogoče prevesti v španščino,

because Spanish doesn't have that SH,

ker španščina nima šh,

that "sh" sound.

nima tega zvoka.

So by convention,

Zato so se domenili

they created a rule in which

in uvedli pravilo, po katerem

they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,

so si izposodili zvok CK, "k"

from the classical Greek

iz stare grščine

in the form of the letter Kai.

v obliki črke kai.

Later when this material was translated

Ko so ta material potem prevajali

into a common European language,

v skupni evropski jezik,

which is to say Latin,

se pravi v latinščino,

they simply replaced the Greek Kai

so grški kai enostavno zamenjali

with the Latin X.

z latinskim X.

And once that happened,

In ko se je to zgodilo,

once this material was in Latin,

ko so bili teksti enkrat v latinščini,

it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks

so postali osnova za matematične učbenike

for almost 600 years.

za skoraj 600 let.

But now we have the answer to our question.

Zdaj pa poznamo odgovor na naše vprašanje.

Why is it that X is the unknown?

Zakaj že X predstavlja neznanko?

X is the unknown

X je neznanka zato,

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

ker v španščini ne morete reči "šh".

(Laughter)

(smeh)

And I thought that was worth sharing.

In zdelo se mi je, da je vredno to deliti z vami.

(Applause)

(aplavz)