Why is 'x' the unknown? | Terry Moore

Translator: Timothy Covell Reviewer: Jenny Zurawell

Prevodilac: Veljko Zrnic Lektor: Ivana Korom

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

Imam odgovor na pitanje koje smo svi postavljali.

The question is,

Pitanje je:

Why is it that the letter X

zašto je slovo X

represents the unknown?

odabrano da predstavlja nepoznatu?

Now I know we learned that in math class,

Znam da smo svi mi učili to na časovima matematike,

but now it's everywhere in the culture --

ali sada je njegova upotreba proširena u celoj kulturi -

The X prize, the X-Files,

X Nagrada, Dosije-X

Project X, TEDx.

Projekat X, TEDx.

Where'd that come from?

Odakle je to poteklo?

About six years ago

Pre oko šest godina

I decided that I would learn Arabic,

odlučio sam da naučim arapski,

which turns out to be a supremely logical language.

koji se ispostavio da je krajnje logičan jezik.

To write a word or a phrase

Napisati reč ili frazu

or a sentence in Arabic

ili rečenicu na arapskom

is like crafting an equation,

je kao kreiranje jednačine,

because every part is extremely precise

zato što je svaki deo izuzetno precizan

and carries a lot of information.

i nosi dosta informacija.

That's one of the reasons

To je jedan od razloga

so much of what we've come to think of

zašto su toliko toga što smatramo

as Western science and mathematics and engineering

"zapadnom" naukom, matematikom i inženjerstvom,

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

zapravo u prvim vekovima nove ere

by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.

smislili Persijanci, Arapi i Turci.

This includes the little system in Arabic

Pod ovim se podrazumeva i mali sistem u arapskom

called al-jebra.

poznat po nazivu "al-gebr".

And al-jebr roughly translates to

A "al-gebr" se grubo prevodi kao

"the system for reconciling disparate parts."

"sistem za usaglašavanje različitih delova".

Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.

"Al-gebr" je na kraju došao u ostale jezike pod nazivom "algebra".

One example among many.

Jedan primer od mnogih.

The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom

Arapski tekstovi koji sadrže ovu matematičku mudrost

finally made their way to Europe --

su konačno pronašli svoj put do Evrope -

which is to say Spain --

to jest, Španije -

in the 11th and 12th centuries.

u XI i XII veku.

And when they arrived

Kada su stigli

there was tremendous interest

postojalo je veliko interesovanje

in translating this wisdom

za prevođenje ove mudrosti

into a European language.

u evropske jezike.

But there were problems.

Ali bilo je problema.

One problem

Jedan problem

is there are some sounds in Arabic

je što postoje neki zvuci u arapskom jeziku

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

koji se jednostavno ne mogu predstaviti evropskim ekvivalentnim zvukom

without lots of practice.

bez dosta vežbanja.

Trust me on that one.

Verujte mi na reč.

Also, those very sounds

Takođe, isti ti zvukovi

tend not to be represented

se najčešće ne mogu

by the characters that are available in European languages.

predstaviti karakterima koji su dostupni u evropskim jezicima.

Here's one of the culprits.

Evo jednog primera.

This is the letter sheen,

Ovo je slovo "Šiin",

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

i ono proizvodi zvuk koji mi zovemo "Š".

It's also the very first letter

To je takođe prvo slovo

of the word shayun,

reči "šei-on",

which means "something"

što znači "nešto"

just like the the English word "something" --

kao što u srpskom reč "nešto" znači -

some undefined, unknown thing.

nešto nedefinisano, nepoznata stvar.

Now in Arabic,

U arapskom,

we can make this definite

mi ovo možemo da napravimo u nešto određeno

by adding the definite article "al."

dodavanjem člana "al".

So this is al-shayun --

Tako da ovo postaje "al-šaion" -

the unknown thing.

neka određena, ali nepoznata stvar.

And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,

I ovo je reč koja se pojavljuje kroz celu ranu matematiku,

such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.

kao što je ovo korenovanje iz X veka.

The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars

Problem za srednjevekovne španske učenjake,

who were tasked with translating this material

koji su dobili zadatak da prevedu ovaj materijal

is that the letter sheen and the word shayun

je taj da slovo "Šiin" i reč "šeion"

can't be rendered into Spanish

ne može da se prevede na španski

because Spanish doesn't have that SH,

zato što španski nema to slovo "Š",

that "sh" sound.

taj "š" zvuk.

So by convention,

Tako, po konvenciji,

they created a rule in which

napravili su pravilo u kome

they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,

su pozajmili CK zvuk, "K" zvuk,

from the classical Greek

iz klasičnog grčkog

in the form of the letter Kai.

u formi slova Kai.

Later when this material was translated

Kasnije, kada je ovaj materijal preveden

into a common European language,

u standardne evropske jezike,

which is to say Latin,

što će reći, latinski,

they simply replaced the Greek Kai

jednostavno su zamenili grčko "Kai"

with the Latin X.

sa latinskim X.

And once that happened,

Jednom kada se to desilo,

once this material was in Latin,

kada je ovaj materijal bio na latinskom,

it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks

formirao je osnovu za matematičke udžbenike

for almost 600 years.

skoro 600 godina.

But now we have the answer to our question.

Sada mi imamo odgovor na naše pitanje.

Why is it that X is the unknown?

Zašto je baš X nepoznata?

X is the unknown

X je nepoznata

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

zato što ne možete da kažete "Š" na španskom.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

And I thought that was worth sharing.

I smatrao sam da ova informacija zaslužuje da je podelim sa vama.

(Applause)

(aplauz)