TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: Hvorfor er 'x' det ukendte?
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Hvorfor er 'x' symbolet for det ukendte? I denne korte og sjove tale giver Terry Moore det overraskende svar.
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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Jeg har svaret på et spørgsmål, vi alle har stillet.
00:20
The question is,
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Spørgsmålet er:
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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Hvorfor er det altid bogstavet X,
00:23
represents the unknown?
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som repræsenterer det ukendte?
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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Vi har lært at bruge det i matematiktimerne,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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men nu er det brugt alle steder i vores kultur --
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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the X- Prize, the X-files
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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Projekt X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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Men hvor kommer det fra?
00:38
About six years ago
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For omkring seks år siden
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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besluttede jeg mig for at lære arabisk,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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hvilket viste sig at være et ekstremt logisk opbygget sprog.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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At skrive et ord, et udtryk
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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eller en sætning på arabisk
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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er ligesom at skrive en ligning,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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fordi hver enkelt del er ekstremt præcis
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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og bærer en masse information.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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Dette er en af grundene til,
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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at så meget, som vi betragter som
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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vestlig videnskab, matematik og teknologi,
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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faktisk blev udviklet i løbet af vores tidsregnings første århundreder
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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af perserne, araberne og tyrkerne.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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Heriblandt det lille system på arabisk
01:13
called al-jebra.
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kaldet al-jebra.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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Og al-jebra kan groft oversættes til
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"Systemet til at forene forskelligartede dele."
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-jebra kom ind i engelsk som algebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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Her er et eksempel blandt mange.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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De arabiske tekster med denne matematisk visdom
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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kom omsider til Europa --
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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hvilket vil sige Spanien --
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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i de 11. og 12. århundreder.
01:38
And when they arrived
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Og da de ankom,
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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var der en gevaldig interesse
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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for at oversætte denne visdom
01:42
into a European language.
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til et europæisk sprog.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Men der var problemer.
01:46
One problem
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Et problem var,
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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at der er nogle lyde på arabisk,
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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som ikke kan udtales af europæere
01:54
without lots of practice.
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uden en masse øvelse.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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Bare spørg mig.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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Derudover kunne disse lyde
02:00
tend not to be represented
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ikke skrives med
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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et bogstav, som var til rådighed i europæiske sprog.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Her er en af skurkene.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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Dette er bogstavet SHeen,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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som laver en lyd, vi vil beskrive som SH -- "sh."
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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Det er også det første bogstav
02:15
of the word shalan,
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i ordet shalan,
02:18
which means "something"
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som betyder "noget,"
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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ligesom det danske ord "noget" --
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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en udefineret, ukendt ting.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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Nå, på arabisk
02:26
we can make this definite
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kan vi gøre ordet bestemt
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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ved at tilføje den bestemte artikel "al."
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Så dette er al-shalan --
02:32
the unknown thing.
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den ukendte ting.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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Og dette er et ord, som bruges overalt i den tidlige matematik,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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som i denne udledning af et bevis fra det 10. århundrede.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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Problemet for de middelalderlige spanske lærde,
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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som havde til opgave at oversætte dette materiale,
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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er, at bogstavet SHeen og ordet shalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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ikke kan blive skrevet på spansk,
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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fordi spansk ikke har SH,
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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denne "sh" lyd.
02:59
So by convention,
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Ud fra sædvane
03:01
they created a rule in which
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skabte de en regel,
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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hvor de lånte CK lyden, "ck,"
03:07
from the classical Greek
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fra klassisk græsk
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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i form af bogstavet Kai.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Senere da dette materiale blev oversat
03:14
into a common European language,
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til et almindeligt udbredt europæisk sprog,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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hvilket vil sige latin,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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så blev det græske Kai erstattet
03:20
with the Latin X.
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med det latinske X.
03:23
And once that happened,
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Og da dette skete,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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da dette materiale var på latin,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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blev det basis for matematiske lærebøger
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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i omkring 600 år.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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Så nu har vi svaret på vores spørgsmål.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Hvorfor er det X, som er den ukendte?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X er den ukendte,
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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fordi man ikke kan sige "sh" på spansk.
03:42
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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Og jeg tænkte, at dette var værd at dele.
03:47
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
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