TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: Zašto je "X" nepoznato?
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Zašto je "X" simbol za nepoznato? U ovom kratkom i zanimljivom predavanju, Terry Moore daje iznenađujuće objašnjenje.
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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Imam odgovor na pitanje koje smo svi postavili.
00:20
The question is,
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Pitanje je:
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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Zašto slovo X
00:23
represents the unknown?
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označava nepoznato?
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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Znam kako smo to učili na satu matematike,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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ali sad je to svepristuno --
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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X nagrada, Dosjei X,
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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Projekt X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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Odakle to?
00:38
About six years ago
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Prije jedno šest godina,
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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odlučio sam učiti arapski,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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koji je izuzeto logičan jezik.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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Pisanje riječi ili fraze
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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ili rečenice na arapskom
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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slično je postavljanju jednadžbe,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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jer svaki dio iznimno je precizan
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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i nosi mnoštvo informacija.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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To je jedan od razloga
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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zašto je ono što smatramo
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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zapadnjačkom znanošću, matematikom i tehnikom
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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zaista i polučilo rezultate u prvim stoljećima naše ere,
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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a potječe od Perzijanaca, Arapa i Turaka.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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To uključuje i jedan mali sustav koji se na arapskom
01:13
called al-jebra.
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zove al-jebra.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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A al-jebr grubo prevedeno je:
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"sustav za usklađivanje nespojivih dijelova".
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-jebr je na kraju dospjela u engleski kao algebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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Jedan od mnogih primjera.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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Arapski tekstovi koji su sadržavali ovu matematičku mudrost
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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konačno su dospjeli u Europu --
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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tj. u Španjolsku --
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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u 11. i 12. stoljeću.
01:38
And when they arrived
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A kad su tamo dospjeli,
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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zavladao je golemi interes
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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za prevođenje ove mudrosti
01:42
into a European language.
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na europske jezike.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Ali pojavili su se problemi.
01:46
One problem
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Jedan od problema
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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bio je što se neki glasovi u arapskom
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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ne mogu proizvesti u europskim glasnicama
01:54
without lots of practice.
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bez napornog vježbanja.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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Vjerujte mi.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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Uz to, ti glasovi
02:00
tend not to be represented
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nisu se mogli prikazati
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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slovima koja su postojala u europskim jezicima.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Evo jednog od krivaca.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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Ovo je slovo SHeen,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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i stvara zvuk za koji mi mislimo da je SH -- "š".
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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To je i prvo slovo
02:15
of the word shalan,
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riječi shalan (šalan),
02:18
which means "something"
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koja znači "nešto",
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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baš kao i hrvatska riječ "nešto" --
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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neku nedefiniranu, nepoznatu stvar.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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E sad, u arapskom,
02:26
we can make this definite
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možemo je učiniti određenom
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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dodavanjem određenog člana "al".
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Pa je to al-shalan --
02:32
the unknown thing.
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baš ta nepoznata stvar.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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A ta riječ se pojavljuje kroz cijelu prvobitnu metematiku,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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kao što je to i u ovom izvođenju dokaza iz 10. stoljeća.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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Problem za srednjovjekovne španjolske učenjake,
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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kojima je bio dodijeljen zadatak prevođenja ovog materijala,
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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bio je u tome što se slovo SHeen i riječ shalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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ne mogu prenijeti u španjolski,
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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jer španjolski nema taj SH,
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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taj "š" glas.
02:59
So by convention,
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Stoga su dogovorom,
03:01
they created a rule in which
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stvorili pravilo po kojem su
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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posudili CK glas, "k" glas,
03:07
from the classical Greek
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od Starih Grka,
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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u obliku slova Kai.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Kasnije kad se ovaj materijal preveo
03:14
into a common European language,
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u referentni eurospki jezik,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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a to je latinski,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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jednostavno je grčko slovo Kai
03:20
with the Latin X.
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zamijenjeno latinskim X.
03:23
And once that happened,
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A kad se to dogodilo,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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kad je materijal bio na latinskom,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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postao je temeljem matematičkih udžbenika
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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u razdoblju od gotovo 600 godina.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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Ali, sad imamo odgovor na naše pitanje.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Zašto je X oznaka za nepoznato?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X je nepoznato,
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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jer ne možete reći "š" na španjolskom.
03:42
(Laughter)
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(Smijeh)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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Smatrao sam kako ovo vrijedi podijeliti.
03:47
(Applause)
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(Pljesak)
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