Why is 'x' the unknown? | Terry Moore

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Jenny Zurawell

Translator: Shqiponja Hoxha Reviewer: Iris Xholi

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

E kam pergjigjien e nje pyetje qe e bejme te gjithe.

The question is,

Pyetja eshte,

Why is it that the letter X

Pse shkronja "X"

represents the unknown?

perfaqeson te panjohuren?

Now I know we learned that in math class,

E di qe e kemi mesuar ne lenden e Matematikes

but now it's everywhere in the culture --

por tani eshte kudo ne kulture

The X prize, the X-Files,

cmimi X, dokumentet-X,

Project X, TEDx.

Projektet X, TEDx.

Where'd that come from?

Nga vjen kjo?

About six years ago

Rreth gjashte vite te shkuara

I decided that I would learn Arabic,

vendosa me mesuar Arabisht,

which turns out to be a supremely logical language.

gjuhe e cila rezulton te jete shume logjike.

To write a word or a phrase

Per te shkruar nje fjale

or a sentence in Arabic

ose nje fjali ne arabisht

is like crafting an equation,

eshte si te perpilosh nje ekuacion,

because every part is extremely precise

sepse cdo pjese eshte shume precize

and carries a lot of information.

edhe mbart shume informacion.

That's one of the reasons

Kjo eshte nje nga arsyet

so much of what we've come to think of

se nje pjese e mire e atyre cka mendojme

as Western science and mathematics and engineering

si shkencë perendimore a matematikë dhe inxhinieri

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

ishte punuar në shekujt para "Epokës së Përbashkët"

by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.

nga Persianet, Arabet edhe Turqit.

This includes the little system in Arabic

Kjo perfshin edhe sistemin e vogel ne Arabisht

called al-jebra.

Te quajtur al-jebra.

And al-jebr roughly translates to

Nje perkthim per al-jebra eshte

"the system for reconciling disparate parts."

"Sistemi për pajtimin e pjeseve te ndara."

Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.

Al-jebra arriti te vinte ne gjuhen anglesze si algjebra.

One example among many.

Nje shembull nder shume.

The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom

Textet arabike qe mbaritn kete urtesi matmatikore

finally made their way to Europe --

me ne fund mberrijne ne Europe--

which is to say Spain --

ose me saktesisht, Spanje--

in the 11th and 12th centuries.

ne shekullin e 11-te dhe 12-te.

And when they arrived

Kur ata mberriten

there was tremendous interest

kishte nje interes shume te madh

in translating this wisdom

ne perkthimin e kesaj urtesije

into a European language.

ne gjuhet Europiane.

But there were problems.

Por kishte probleme.

One problem

Nje problem

is there are some sounds in Arabic

ishte fakti se disa tinguj ne arabisht

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

nuk eshte e mundur ti shqiptosh nëpërmjet një zëri Evropian

without lots of practice.

pa shume mund e praktike.

Trust me on that one.

Me besoni kur e them kete.

Also, those very sounds

Gjithashtu, keto tinguj

tend not to be represented

priren te mos jene te perfaqesuara

by the characters that are available in European languages.

nga shkronjat e perdorura ne gjuhet Evropiane.

Here's one of the culprits.

Ketu esht nje prej fajtoreve.

This is the letter sheen,

Kjo eshte shkronja SHeen,

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

e cila tingellon si SH-- ''sh'.'

It's also the very first letter

Kjo eshte gjithashtu shkronja me te cilen fillon

of the word shayun,

fjala shalan,

which means "something"

e cila do te thote ''diçka''

just like the the English word "something" --

pikerisht si fjala Anglisht ''something''--

some undefined, unknown thing.

disa gjera te pa identifikuara, te panjohura.

Now in Arabic,

Ne gjuhen Arabe,

we can make this definite

ne mund ta shquajm kete fjale

by adding the definite article "al."

duke shtuar nyjen shquese ''al.''

So this is al-shayun --

Pra, kjo eshte al-shalan--

the unknown thing.

gjeja e panjohur.

And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,

Kjo eshte nje fjale e cila shfaqet qe ne gjenezen e matematikes,

such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.

si ky derivim i provave i shekullit te 10-te.

The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars

Problemi per dijetaret Mesjetare Spanjoll

who were tasked with translating this material

te cilet kishin per detyre perkthimin e ketij materiali

is that the letter sheen and the word shayun

esht se shkronja SHeen dhe fjala shalan

can't be rendered into Spanish

nuk mund te kthehen ne Spanjisht

because Spanish doesn't have that SH,

sepse spanjishtja (si gjuhe) nuk e njeh shkronjen SH,

that "sh" sound.

ose me mire, tingullin ''sh''.

So by convention,

Pra per marreveshje,

they created a rule in which

ata krijuan nje rregull, ne baze te se ciles

they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,

ata huazuan tingullin CK,

from the classical Greek

nga Greqishtja klasike

in the form of the letter Kai.

ne formen e shkronjes Kai.

Later when this material was translated

Me vone, kur ky material u perkthye

into a common European language,

ne nje gjuhe te perbashket Evropiane,

which is to say Latin,

e cila ishte Latinishtja,

they simply replaced the Greek Kai

ato thjeshte zevendsuan shkronjen greke Kai

with the Latin X.

me shkronjen latine X.

And once that happened,

Ne momentin kur ky zevendesim u krye,

once this material was in Latin,

dhe materiali u mundesua ne latinisht,

it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks

formoi bazen per librat shkollor te matmatikes

for almost 600 years.

per pothuajse 600 vjet.

But now we have the answer to our question.

Por tanime e kemi pergjigjien per pyetjen tone.

Why is it that X is the unknown?

Pse eshte X e panjohura?

X is the unknown

X eshte e panjohura

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

per pamundesine e te thenit ''sh'' ne Spanjisht.

(Laughter)

(Te qeshura)

And I thought that was worth sharing.

Dhe une mendova se ky informacion ja vlente te shperhapej.

(Applause)

(Duartrokitje)