TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terijs Mūrs: Kādēļ 'x' ir nezināmais?
Filmed:
Readability: 5.1
3,872,013 views
Kāpēc tieši 'x' ir simbols, ar ko apzīmē nezināmo? Šajā īsajā un smieklīgajā runā Terijs Mūrs sniegs pārsteidzošu atbildi.
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.
0
611
3601
Man ir atbilde uz jautājumu, kuru mēs visi esam uzdevuši.
00:20
The question is,
1
4212
1117
Jautājums ir:
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
2
5329
2284
kādēļ tieši burtu X izmantot
00:23
represents the unknown?
3
7613
1998
nezināmā apzīmēšanai?
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
4
9611
2967
Zinu, ka mums to jau mācīja matemātikas stundās,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
5
12578
1751
bet šobrīd tas kultūrā ir visur —
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
6
14329
2801
X balva, X-faili,
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
7
17130
3923
Projekts X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
8
21053
1995
No kurienes tas ir radies?
00:38
About six years ago
9
23048
1218
Pirms aptuveni sešiem gadiem
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
10
24266
2716
es nolēmu apgūt arābu valodu,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
11
26982
3952
kas izrādījās ārkārtīgi loģiska valoda.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
12
30934
2317
Arābiski uzrakstīt vārdu,
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
13
33251
1681
izteicienu vai teikumu
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
14
34932
2233
ir kā veidot sava veida vienādojumu,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
15
37165
2366
jo katra no daļām ir ārkārtīgi precīzi izvēlēta
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
16
39531
2852
un ietver sevī daudz informācijas.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
17
42383
1350
Tas ir viens no iemesliem
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
18
43733
1515
kādēļ lielu daļu
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
19
45248
3819
no Rietumu zinātnes, matemātikas un inženierijas atklājumiem,
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
20
49067
3322
īstenībā izstrādāja mūsu ēras pirmajos gadsimtos
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
21
52389
3316
persieši, arābi un turki.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
22
55705
2317
Tostarp arī tādu arābu valodas sistēmiņu
01:13
called al-jebra.
23
58022
1716
sauktu par 'al-jebra'.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
24
59738
3168
'Al-jebr' aptuveni tulkojās kā
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
25
62906
3699
„sistēma atsevišķu daļu apvienošanai.”
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
26
66605
4050
'Al-jebr' beigu beigās ienāca angļu valodā kā 'algebra'.
01:26
One example among many.
27
70655
2167
Viens no daudzajiem piemēriem.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
28
72822
3966
Arābu teksti ar šīm matemātiskajām gudrībām
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
29
76788
1783
11. un 12. gadsimtā
01:34
which is to say Spain --
30
78571
1286
beidzot ienāca arī Eiropā,
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
31
79857
2465
precīzāk Spānijā.
01:38
And when they arrived
32
82322
1150
Ar to ienākšanu Eiropā
01:39
there was tremendous interest
33
83472
1883
radās milzīga interese
01:41
in translating this wisdom
34
85355
1734
šīs gudrības pārtulkot
01:42
into a European language.
35
87089
1649
kādā no eiropiešu valodām.
01:44
But there were problems.
36
88738
2018
Taču radās problēmas.
01:46
One problem
37
90756
1717
Viena no tām bija,
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
38
92473
2633
ka arābu valodā ir skaņas,
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
39
95106
2999
kuras vienkārši nevar izdabūt no eiropiešu mutēm
01:54
without lots of practice.
40
98105
2267
bez lielas vingrināšanās.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
41
100372
1734
Ticiet man!
01:58
Also, those very sounds
42
102106
2217
Piedevām, tās pašas skaņas
02:00
tend not to be represented
43
104323
1914
lielākoties nav arī iespējams aprakstīt
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
44
106237
3588
ar pieejamajām eiropiešu valodu rakstzīmēm.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
45
109825
1814
Lūk, viens no vaininiekiem.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
46
111639
1884
Lūk, burts 'šīn'.
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
47
113523
3599
To izrunā kā skaņu 'š'.
02:13
It's also the very first letter
48
117122
2602
Tas ir arī pirmais burts
02:15
of the word shalan,
49
119724
2432
vārdā 'šalan',
02:18
which means "something"
50
122156
1794
kas nozīmē „kaut kas”,
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
51
123950
1848
gluži kā latviešu valodas vārdi „kaut kas”,
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
52
125798
3286
kāda nezināma un nenoteikta lieta.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
53
129084
1165
Arābu valodā mēs varam
02:26
we can make this definite
54
130249
1201
šo nenoteikto pārvērst par kaut ko konkrētu,
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
55
131450
2148
pievienojot skaņai artikulu „al”.
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
56
133598
2602
Šādā veidā mēs iegūstam al-šalan —
02:32
the unknown thing.
57
136200
1650
nezināmais.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
58
137850
3303
Šis jēdziens parādās viscaur agrīnajos matemātiskajos rakstos
kā šī 10. gadsimta sakņu atvasināšanā.
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
59
141153
7200
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
60
148353
2510
Galvenā problēma viduslaiku spāņu akadēmiķiem,
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
61
150863
2568
kam bija uzdots tulkot šo tekstu,
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
62
153431
4482
bija nespēšana spāņu valodā atveidot
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
63
157913
1950
skaņu „šīn” un vārdu „šalan”,
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
64
159863
2586
jo spāņu valodā nav „š” skaņas
02:58
that "sh" sound.
65
162449
1297
vienkārši nav.
02:59
So by convention,
66
163746
1582
Vienojoties, tika izveidots
03:01
they created a rule in which
67
165328
1666
noteikums, kas šādā gadījumā ļauj
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
68
166994
4218
aizgūt „ck” skaņu
03:07
from the classical Greek
69
171212
1748
no klasiskās grieķu valodas,
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
70
172960
2681
ko apzīmē ar burtu „kai”.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
71
175641
2719
Vēlāk, kad šo tekstu pārtulkoja
03:14
into a common European language,
72
178360
2348
tālaika Eiropas izplatītākajā valodā,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
73
180708
2050
kas tobrīd bija latīņu valoda,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
74
182758
2033
grieķu „kai” vienkārši aizstāja
03:20
with the Latin X.
75
184791
2350
ar latīņu X.
03:23
And once that happened,
76
187141
1269
Un kad tas notika,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
77
188410
2465
kad teksts bija pārtulkots latīniski,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
78
190875
3583
tas kļuva par pamatu matemātikas mācību grāmatām
03:30
for almost 600 years.
79
194458
2083
teju 600 gadus.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
80
196541
2018
Taču nu mums ir atbilde uz mūsu jautājumu.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
81
198559
2781
Kādēļ X vienmēr ir nezināmais?
03:37
X is the unknown
82
201340
1823
X ir nezināmais,
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
83
203163
3782
jo spāniski nevar pateikt „š”!
03:42
(Laughter)
84
206945
2384
(Smiekli)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
85
209329
2317
Man šķita, ka ar to bija vērts padalīties.
03:47
(Applause)
86
211646
3117
(Aplausi)
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