TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: Prečo sa neznáma označuje "x"?
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Prečo je "x" symbolom pre neznámu? Vo svojom krátkom a zábavnom vystúpení Terry Moore odhaľuje prekvapujúcu odpoveď.
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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Mám odpoveď na otázku, ktorú sme si všetci kládli.
00:20
The question is,
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Tou otázkou je,
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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prečo sa neznáma
00:23
represents the unknown?
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označuje písmenom x.
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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Viem, že sme sa to učili na hodine matematiky,
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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ale teraz je to všade v kultúre --
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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Cena X, Akty X,
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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Projekt X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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Odkiaľ sa to zobralo?
00:38
About six years ago
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Asi pred šiestimi rokmi
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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som sa rozhodol, že sa naučím po arabsky,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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a ukázalo sa, že je to ohromne logický jazyk.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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Napísať slovo, alebo frázu,
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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alebo vetu v arabčine
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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je ako zostrojovať rovnicu,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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pretože každá časť je extrémne presná
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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a nesie veľa informácií.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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To jej jeden z dôvodov,
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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prečo veľa z toho, čo považujeme
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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za západnú vedu, matematiku a inžinierstvo,
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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v skutočnosti vymysleli v prvých storočiach nášho letopočtu
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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Peržania a Arabi a Turci.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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Toto zahŕňa malý systém v arabčine
01:13
called al-jebra.
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zvaný al-džebra.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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A al-džebr voľne prekladáme ako
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"systém pre zladenie rôznorodých častí."
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-džebr sa napokon dostal do angličtiny ako algebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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Jeden príklad za všetky.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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Arabské texty obsahujúce túto matematickú múdrosť
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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sa konečne dostali do Európy --
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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čo znamená do Španielska --
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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v 11tom a 12tom storočí.
01:38
And when they arrived
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A keď prišli,
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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vzbudili ohromný záujem
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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o preklad tejto múdrosti
01:42
into a European language.
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do európskeho jazyka.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Ale malo to háčik.
01:46
One problem
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Problém bol,
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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že niektoré zvuky v arabčine
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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jednoducho európske ústa nezvládajú
01:54
without lots of practice.
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bez náročného tréningu.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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To mi môžete veriť.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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A tie isté zvuky
02:00
tend not to be represented
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sa nedajú zapísať
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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písmenami, ktoré sú dostupné v európskych jazykoch.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Tu je jeden z vinníkov.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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Toto je písmeno šín,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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a znie ako zvuk "š".
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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Je to zároveň prvé písmeno
02:15
of the word shalan,
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slova šalan,
02:18
which means "something"
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ktoré znamená "niečo",
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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tak ako naše slovo "niečo" --
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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nejaká nedefinovaná, neznáma vec.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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V arabčine
02:26
we can make this definite
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to môžeme skonkrétniť
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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pridaním určitého člena "al."
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Čiže toto je al-šalan --
02:32
the unknown thing.
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neznáma vec.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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A toto je slovo, ktoré sa objavuje v rannej matematike,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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ako napríklad v tejto derivácii odmocniny z 10. storočia.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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Stredovekí španielski učenci,
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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ktorí prekladali tento materiál, mali problém,
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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že písmeno šín, a slovo šalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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sa v španielčine nedajú napísať ani vysloviť,
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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pretože španielčina nemá "š",
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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zvuk "š".
02:59
So by convention,
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Takže sa dohodli
03:01
they created a rule in which
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a vytvorili pravidlo, podľa ktorého
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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si požičali zvuk "k",
03:07
from the classical Greek
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z klasickej gréčtiny
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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vo forme písmena Chí.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Neskôr, keď sa materiál prekladal
03:14
into a common European language,
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do bežného európskeho jazyka,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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čiže latinčiny,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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iba vymenili grécke chí
03:20
with the Latin X.
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za latinské x.
03:23
And once that happened,
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A keď sa to stalo,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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keď už bol materiál v latinčine,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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vytvoril základ pre učebnice matematiky
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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na skoro 600 rokov.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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Ale teraz vieme odpoveď na našu otázku.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Prečo je x neznámou?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X označuje neznámu,
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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pretože v španielčine neviete vysloviť "š".
03:42
(Laughter)
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(smiech)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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A myslel som, že to je myšlienka hodná šírenia.
03:47
(Applause)
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(potlesk)
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