I have the answer to a question that we've all asked. The question is, Why is it that the letter X represents the unknown? Now I know we learned that in math class, but now it's everywhere in the culture -- The X prize, the X-Files, Project X, TEDx. Where'd that come from?
Waxaan hayaa jawaabta suaasha aan dhamaanteen is waydiinay suaashu waxay tahay, Sababta xarafka X ugu taaganyahay midkaan la garanayn? iminka waxaan ogahay inaan taas ku soo baranay fasalka xisaabta, laakiin iminka meel kasta way ku jirtaa -- X prize-ta X-files-ka, project X-ka, TEDx-ta halkay taasi ka timid?
About six years ago I decided that I would learn Arabic, which turns out to be a supremely logical language. To write a word or a phrase or a sentence in Arabic is like crafting an equation, because every part is extremely precise and carries a lot of information. That's one of the reasons so much of what we've come to think of as Western science and mathematics and engineering was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
qiyaastii lix sano ka hor waxaan go'aansaday inaan barto Carabida taasoo u muuqata inay tahay luuqad caqliyeed oo sareysa. in la qoro kelmad ama kelmad isku xidhan ama odhaah lagu qoro Carabi waa sida dhirindhirinta qaaciido, maxaa yeelay qayb kasta ilaa xad way cadahay waxayna sidaa xog aad u badan. taas waa mid ka mida sababaha inta waxay tahay inaynu kaga fekerno cilmiga reer galbeedka iyo xisaabta iyo muhadisnimada in runtii ay hore uga shaqeeyeen qarniyadii ugu horeeyey ee Common Era (BC) Beershiyaanka, Carabta iyo Turkidu.
This includes the little system in Arabic called al-jebra. And al-jebr roughly translates to "the system for reconciling disparate parts." Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra. One example among many.
tan waxaa ku jirta habka yar ee Carabiga ah ee lagu magcaabo Aljabra. Aljabr waxaa sida caadiga lagu turjumaa "habka laysugu xidhayo qaybaha kala baahsan." Aljabr ugu danbayntii waxay ingiriisi isu bedeshay Algebra. tusaale ka mida waxyaalahas badan
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom finally made their way to Europe -- which is to say Spain -- in the 11th and 12th centuries. And when they arrived there was tremendous interest in translating this wisdom into a European language.
qoraalka Carabida ee ay ku jirto xigmada xisaabtu ugu danbayntii waxay timid Yurub-- taaso ah, aan dhaho Isbayn-- qarnigii koobiyo tobnaan iyo labiyo tobnaad. markay soo gaadhay waxaa jirtay xiiso baaxad wayn oo loo hayey u turjumida xikmadan luuqadaha reer Yurub.
But there were problems. One problem is there are some sounds in Arabic that just don't make it through a European voice box without lots of practice. Trust me on that one. Also, those very sounds tend not to be represented by the characters that are available in European languages.
laakiin waxaa jirtay dhibaatooyin. dhibaato ka mida waxay ahayd tiraabta codka ee Carabida taason lagu odhan karin codka reer Yurub iyadoon aad loogu celcelin. taas iga rumaysta sidoo kale, codadkaas iyaga ah waxay noqdeen kuwaan ka muuqan xarfaha ku jira luuqadaha reer Yurub.
Here's one of the culprits. This is the letter sheen, and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh." It's also the very first letter of the word shayun, which means "something" just like the the English word "something" -- some undefined, unknown thing.
halkan waxaa ah mid ka mida khaladaadka xarafkan waa shiin, waxayna samaysaa codka aan filayno inuu yahay shi'-- "sh'" waana mid kamida xarfaha ugu horeeya ee kelmada shay'un, taasoo macnaheedu yahay "wuxuun" sida kelmada Ingiriisida ee "wuxuun" -- wax aan qayaxnayn, shay aan la garanayn.
Now in Arabic, we can make this definite by adding the definite article "al." So this is al-shayun -- the unknown thing. And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics, such as this 10th-century derivation of roots.
iminka Carabida, waxaan ka dhigi karnaa tan mid qayaxan inagoo ku darayna xarfahah "al" markaa waa alshay'un shayga aan la garanayn. tani waa kelmadii ka muuqan jirtay xiliyadii hore ee xisaabta, sida dhirindhirintan qarnigii tobnaad ah
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars who were tasked with translating this material is that the letter sheen and the word shayun can't be rendered into Spanish because Spanish doesn't have that SH, that "sh" sound. So by convention, they created a rule in which they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound, from the classical Greek in the form of the letter Kai.
dhibaatada heshay aqoonyahankii Medieval Spanish ee loo xilsaaray turjumida arintan waxay ahayd in kelmada shiin ama xarafka shay'un inaan laga dhigi karin Isbaanish sababtoo ah Isbaanishku ma laha Sha', codka "sha' markaa waxaa laysla qaatay, sameeyeen xeer ay ka soo amaahdeen codka CK, codka "ka' taasoo ay ka soo qaateen Giriigii hore oo ah qaabka xaraka kaay.
Later when this material was translated into a common European language, which is to say Latin, they simply replaced the Greek Kai with the Latin X. And once that happened, once this material was in Latin, it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks for almost 600 years.
ka dib markii tan loo bedelay luuqadihi caadiga ahaa ee reer Yurub, oo ah Laatiinka, waxay si dhibyar ugu bedeleen Kaay-dii Giriiga xarkii X markii taasi dhacdayna, markii tani noqotay Laatiin waxay samaysay buugaagta aasaasiga ee xiisaabta ilaa lix boqol oo sano,
But now we have the answer to our question. Why is it that X is the unknown? X is the unknown because you can't say "sh" in Spanish. (Laughter) And I thought that was worth sharing.
hadaba iminka aan ka jawaabno suaasheeni maxay X u tahay mid aan la garanayn X waa mid aan la garanayn sababtu waa inaysan ku odhan karayn "sha' luuqada Isbaanishka (qosol) waxaanan filayaa inay taasi tamay mid mudan inaan idinla wadaago
(Applause)
(sacab)