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¡¡¡¡ihavetheanswertoaquestionthatwe'veallasked.thequestionis,whyisitthattheletterxrepresentstheunknown?nowiknowwelearnedthatinmathclass,butnowit'severywhereintheculture--thexprize,thex-files,projectx,tedx.where'dthatcomefrom?
¡¡¡¡aboutsixyearsagoidecidedthatiwouldlearnarabic,whichturnsouttobeasupremelylogicallanguage.towriteawordoraphraseorasentenceinarabicislikecraftinganequation,becauseeverypartisextremelypreciseandcarriesalotofinformation.that'soneofthereasonssomuchofwhatwe'vecometothinkofaswesternscienceandmathematicsandengineeringwasreallyworkedoutinthefirstfewcenturiesofthecommonerabythepersiansandthearabsandtheturks.
¡¡¡¡thisincludesthelittlesysteminarabiccalledal-jebra.andal-jebrroughlytranslatesto"thesystemforreconcilingdisparateparts."al-jebrfinallycameintoenglishasalgebra.oneexampleamongmany.
¡¡¡¡thearabictextscontainingthismathematicalwisdomfinallymadetheirwaytoeurope--whichistosayspain--inthe11thand12thcenturies.andwhentheyarrivedtherewastremendousinterestintranslatingthiswisdomintoaeuropeanlanguage.
¡¡¡¡buttherewereproblems.oneproblemistherearesomesoundsinarabicthatjustdon'tmakeitthroughaeuropeanvoiceboxwithoutlotsofpractice.trustmeonthatone.also,thoseverysoundstendnottoberepresentedbythecharactersthatareavailableineuropeanlanguages.
¡¡¡¡here'soneoftheculprits.thisisthelettersheen,anditmakesthesoundwethinkofassh--"sh."it'salsotheveryfirstletterofthewordshalan,whichmeans"something"justlikethetheenglishword"something"--someundefined,unknownthing.
¡¡¡¡nowinarabic,wecanmakethisdefinitebyaddingthedefinitearticle"al."sothisisal-shalan--theunknownthing.andthisisawordthatappearsthroughoutearlymathematics,suchasthis10thcenturyderivationofproofs.
¡¡¡¡theproblemforthemedievalspanishscholarswhoweretaskedwithtranslatingthismaterialisthatthelettersheenandthewordshalancan'tberenderedintospanishbecausespanishdoesn'thavethatsh,that"sh"sound.sobyconvention,theycreatedaruleinwhichtheyborrowedthecksound,"ck"sound,fromtheclassicalgreekintheformoftheletterkai.
¡¡¡¡laterwhenthismaterialwastranslatedintoacommoneuropeanlanguage,whichistosaylatin,theysimplyreplacedthegreekkaiwiththelatinx.andoncethathappened,oncethismaterialwasinlatin,itformedthebasisformathematicstextbooksforalmost600years.
¡¡¡¡butnowwehavetheanswertoourquestion.whyisitthatxistheunknown?xistheunknownbecauseyoucan'tsay"sh"inspanish.(laughter)andithoughtthatwasworthsharing.
¡¡¡¡(applause)
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