TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: Por que o "x" representa o descoñecido?
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Por que é o "x" o símbolo do descoñecido? Nesta breve e divertida charla Terry Moore revela a sorprendente resposta.
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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Teño a resposta a unha pregunta que todos nos fixemos.
00:20
The question is,
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A pregunta é:
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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por que a letra X
00:23
represents the unknown?
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representa o descoñecido?
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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Xa sei que iso é o que nos ensinaron na clase de matemáticas,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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pero agora está en todas partes na cultura:
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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O premio X Prize, Expediente X,
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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Proxecto X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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De onde vén iso?
00:38
About six years ago
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Fará cousa de seis anos
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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decidín aprender árabe,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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que é unha lingua sumamente lóxica.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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Escribir unha palabra ou unha frase
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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ou unha oración en árabe
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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é como escribir una ecuación,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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porque cada parte é tremendamente precisa
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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e leva consigo unha morea de información.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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Ese é un dos motivos
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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polo que gran parte do que agora consideramos
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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a ciencia, as matemáticas e a enxeñería occidentais
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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en realidade foi concibido nos primeiros séculos da Era Común
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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polos persas, os árabes e os turcos.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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Isto inclúe un sistema en árabe
01:13
called al-jebra.
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chamado al-jebra.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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E al-jebr traducido quere dicir
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"o sistema para reconciliar partes dispares".
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-jebr introduciuse na nosa lingua como álxebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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Un exemplo entre moitos.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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Os textos árabes que contiñan esta sabiduría matemática
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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por fin entraron en Europa,
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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ou mellor dito, España,
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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nos séculos XI e XII.
01:38
And when they arrived
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E cando chegaron
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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houbo un interés enorme
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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en traducir esa sabiduría
01:42
into a European language.
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a unha lingua Europea.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Pero había certos problemas.
01:46
One problem
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Un problema
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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é que hai certos sons en árabe
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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que son imposibles para as cordas vocais europeas
01:54
without lots of practice.
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a non ser que se practiquen moito.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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Fiádevos do que vos digo.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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Ademais, eses sons
02:00
tend not to be represented
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tenden a non ser representados
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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polos caracteres que están dispoñibles nas linguas europeas.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Esta é unha das culpables.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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A letra SHeen,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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que soa como a nosa "xe" en "peixe"
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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Tamén é a primeira letra
02:15
of the word shalan,
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da palabra shalan,
02:18
which means "something"
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que significa "algo"
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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como na palabra inglesa "something",
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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unha cousa indefinida e descoñecida.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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En árabe
02:26
we can make this definite
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podemos convertir isto en algo definido
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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engadindo o artigo definido "al".
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Así que isto é al-shalan,
02:32
the unknown thing.
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a cousa descoñecida.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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E esta é unha palabra que aparece nas matemáticas antigas,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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coma nesta derivación de probas do século X.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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O problema para os académicos medievais españois
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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que tiñan que traducir este material
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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é que a letra SHeen e a palabra shalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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non se poden reproducir en español
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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porque o español non ten ese SH,
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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ese son do "xe".
02:59
So by convention,
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Así que acordaron crear
03:01
they created a rule in which
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unha regra pola cal
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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tomaban prestado o son K, o da letra "q",
03:07
from the classical Greek
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do grego clásico
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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na forma da letra khi.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Máis tarde cando este material foi traducido
03:14
into a common European language,
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a unha lingua europea común,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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é dicir, o latín,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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simplemente substituiron o Khi grego
03:20
with the Latin X.
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co X latino.
03:23
And once that happened,
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E unha vez que aconteceu iso,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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en canto ese material estivo en latín
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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pasou a ser a base dos libros de texto matemáticos
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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durante case 600 anos.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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E agora temos a resposta á nosa pregunta.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Por que o X representa o descoñecido?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X é o descoñecido
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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porque non se pode dicir "xe" en español.
03:42
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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E pensei que merecía a pena compartilo.
03:47
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
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