TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: Zakaj je "x" neznanka?
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Zakaj je "x" simbol za neznano? V tem kratkem in zabavnem govoru Terry Moore ponudi presenetljiv odgovor.
Terry Moore - Thinker
Terry Moore is the director of the Radius Foundation, a forum for exploring and gaining insight from different worldviews. Full bio
Terry Moore is the director of the Radius Foundation, a forum for exploring and gaining insight from different worldviews. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
I have the answer to a question that we've all asked.
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Poznam odgovor na vprašanje, ki si ga vsi zastavljamo.
00:20
The question is,
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Vprašanje je,
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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zakaj črka X
00:23
represents the unknown?
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predstavlja tisto, kar je neznano.
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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Seveda smo se o tem učili pri matematiki,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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ampak dandanes je prisotno v vsej kulturi ...
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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X nagrada, dosjeji X
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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projekt X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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Odkod to izvira?
00:38
About six years ago
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Pred kakimi šestimi leti
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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sem se odločil naučiti arabščino,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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ki je pravzaprav izjemno logičen jezik.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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Pisanje besede ali fraze
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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ali povedi v arabščini
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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je kot izklesovanje enačbe,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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saj je vsak del skrajno precizen
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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in vsebuje veliko informacij.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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To je eden od razlogov,
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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da so ogromno tega, kar razumemo
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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kot zahodno znanost, matematiko in inženirstvo,
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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v resnici v prvih nekaj stoletjih moderne dobe
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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razvili Perzijci, Arabci in Turki.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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Sem spada tudi mali sistem, ki se v arabščini
01:13
called al-jebra.
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imenuje al-džebr.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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Al-džebr lahko približno prevedemo kot
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"sistem, ki zbliža ločene dele".
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-džebr je končno v angleščini postal algebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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To je eden od mnogih primerov.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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Arabska besedila s to matematično modrostjo
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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so sčasoma prispela v Evropo,
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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se pravi v Španijo,
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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v 11. in 12. stoletju.
01:38
And when they arrived
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In ko so prišla,
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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je zavladal velik interes,
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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da bi to modrost prevedli
01:42
into a European language.
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v evropski jezik.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Ampak ni šlo brez težav.
01:46
One problem
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Ena od njih je,
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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da v arabščini obstajajo nekateri zvoki,
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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ki jih evropske glasilke enostavno ne obvladajo,
01:54
without lots of practice.
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vsaj ne brez veliko vaje.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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Verjemite mi.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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Poleg tega ravno teh zvokov
02:00
tend not to be represented
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ponavadi ne moremo zapisati
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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s črkami, ki jih uporabljamo v evropskih jezikih.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Tale je eden od takih.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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To je črka šin,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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in zveni tako kot šh.
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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Je pa tudi prva črka
02:15
of the word shalan,
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besede šalan,
02:18
which means "something"
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kar pomeni "nekaj",
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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tako kot naša "nekaj" ...
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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neka nedoločena, nedefinirana stvar.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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V arabščini
02:26
we can make this definite
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jo naredimo določno tako,
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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da dodamo določni člen "al".
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Tole je torej al-šalan ...
02:32
the unknown thing.
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neznana stvar.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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Ta beseda se pojavlja skozi vso zgodnjo matematiko,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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denimo v izvajanju dokazov iz 10. stoletja.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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Težava za srednjeveške španske znanstvenike,
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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ki so morali ta material prevesti, je bila,
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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da črke šin in besede šalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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ni mogoče prevesti v španščino,
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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ker španščina nima šh,
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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nima tega zvoka.
02:59
So by convention,
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Zato so se domenili
03:01
they created a rule in which
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in uvedli pravilo, po katerem
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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so si izposodili zvok CK, "k"
03:07
from the classical Greek
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iz stare grščine
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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v obliki črke kai.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Ko so ta material potem prevajali
03:14
into a common European language,
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v skupni evropski jezik,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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se pravi v latinščino,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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so grški kai enostavno zamenjali
03:20
with the Latin X.
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z latinskim X.
03:23
And once that happened,
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In ko se je to zgodilo,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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ko so bili teksti enkrat v latinščini,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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so postali osnova za matematične učbenike
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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za skoraj 600 let.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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Zdaj pa poznamo odgovor na naše vprašanje.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Zakaj že X predstavlja neznanko?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X je neznanka zato,
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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ker v španščini ne morete reči "šh".
03:42
(Laughter)
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(smeh)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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In zdelo se mi je, da je vredno to deliti z vami.
03:47
(Applause)
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(aplavz)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Terry Moore - ThinkerTerry Moore is the director of the Radius Foundation, a forum for exploring and gaining insight from different worldviews.
Why you should listen
Terry Moore directs the Radius Foundation in New York, which, as its website says, "seeks new ways of exploring and understanding dissimilar conceptual systems or paradigms -- scientific, religious, philosophical, and aesthetic -- with the aim to find a world view of more complete insight and innovation. The Radius Foundation is a forum for different views."
The foundation has published several works that examine the intersection of religion and metaphysics with science and social action.
Terry Moore | Speaker | TED.com