TED2012
Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
Terry Moore: pse eshte 'x' i panjohur?
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Pse eshte 'x' simboli i panjohur? Gjate ketij ligjerimi te shkurter dhe argetues, Terry Moore na jep pergjigjen e papritur.
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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E kam pergjigjien e nje pyetje qe e bejme te gjithe.
00:20
The question is,
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Pyetja eshte,
00:21
Why is it that the letter X
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Pse shkronja "X"
00:23
represents the unknown?
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perfaqeson te panjohuren?
00:25
Now I know we learned that in math class,
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E di qe e kemi mesuar ne lenden e Matematikes
00:28
but now it's everywhere in the culture --
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por tani eshte kudo ne kulture
00:30
The X prize, the X-Files,
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cmimi X, dokumentet-X,
00:33
Project X, TEDx.
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Projektet X, TEDx.
00:36
Where'd that come from?
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Nga vjen kjo?
00:38
About six years ago
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Rreth gjashte vite te shkuara
00:40
I decided that I would learn Arabic,
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vendosa me mesuar Arabisht,
00:42
which turns out to be a supremely logical language.
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gjuhe e cila rezulton te jete shume logjike.
00:46
To write a word or a phrase
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Per te shkruar nje fjale
00:49
or a sentence in Arabic
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ose nje fjali ne arabisht
00:50
is like crafting an equation,
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eshte si te perpilosh nje ekuacion,
00:53
because every part is extremely precise
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sepse cdo pjese eshte shume precize
00:55
and carries a lot of information.
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edhe mbart shume informacion.
00:58
That's one of the reasons
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Kjo eshte nje nga arsyet
00:59
so much of what we've come to think of
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se nje pjese e mire e atyre cka mendojme
01:01
as Western science and mathematics and engineering
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si shkencë perendimore a matematikë dhe inxhinieri
01:04
was really worked out in the first few centuries of the Common Era
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ishte punuar në shekujt para "Epokës së Përbashkët"
01:08
by the Persians and the Arabs and the Turks.
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nga Persianet, Arabet edhe Turqit.
01:11
This includes the little system in Arabic
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Kjo perfshin edhe sistemin e vogel ne Arabisht
01:13
called al-jebra.
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Te quajtur al-jebra.
01:15
And al-jebr roughly translates to
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Nje perkthim per al-jebra eshte
01:18
"the system for reconciling disparate parts."
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"Sistemi për pajtimin e pjeseve te ndara."
01:22
Al-jebr finally came into English as algebra.
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Al-jebra arriti te vinte ne gjuhen anglesze si algjebra.
01:26
One example among many.
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Nje shembull nder shume.
01:28
The Arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom
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Textet arabike qe mbaritn kete urtesi matmatikore
01:32
finally made their way to Europe --
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me ne fund mberrijne ne Europe--
01:34
which is to say Spain --
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ose me saktesisht, Spanje--
01:35
in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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ne shekullin e 11-te dhe 12-te.
01:38
And when they arrived
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Kur ata mberriten
01:39
there was tremendous interest
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kishte nje interes shume te madh
01:41
in translating this wisdom
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ne perkthimin e kesaj urtesije
01:42
into a European language.
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ne gjuhet Europiane.
01:44
But there were problems.
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Por kishte probleme.
01:46
One problem
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Nje problem
01:48
is there are some sounds in Arabic
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ishte fakti se disa tinguj ne arabisht
01:51
that just don't make it through a European voice box
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nuk eshte e mundur ti shqiptosh nëpërmjet një zëri Evropian
01:54
without lots of practice.
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pa shume mund e praktike.
01:56
Trust me on that one.
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Me besoni kur e them kete.
01:58
Also, those very sounds
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Gjithashtu, keto tinguj
02:00
tend not to be represented
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priren te mos jene te perfaqesuara
02:02
by the characters that are available in European languages.
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nga shkronjat e perdorura ne gjuhet Evropiane.
02:05
Here's one of the culprits.
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Ketu esht nje prej fajtoreve.
02:07
This is the letter SHeen,
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Kjo eshte shkronja SHeen,
02:09
and it makes the sound we think of as SH -- "sh."
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e cila tingellon si SH-- ''sh'.'
02:13
It's also the very first letter
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Kjo eshte gjithashtu shkronja me te cilen fillon
02:15
of the word shalan,
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fjala shalan,
02:18
which means "something"
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e cila do te thote ''diçka''
02:19
just like the the English word "something" --
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pikerisht si fjala Anglisht ''something''--
02:21
some undefined, unknown thing.
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disa gjera te pa identifikuara, te panjohura.
02:24
Now in Arabic,
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Ne gjuhen Arabe,
02:26
we can make this definite
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ne mund ta shquajm kete fjale
02:27
by adding the definite article "al."
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duke shtuar nyjen shquese ''al.''
02:29
So this is al-shalan --
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Pra, kjo eshte al-shalan--
02:32
the unknown thing.
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gjeja e panjohur.
02:33
And this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics,
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Kjo eshte nje fjale e cila shfaqet qe ne gjenezen e matematikes,
02:37
such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
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si ky derivim i provave i shekullit te 10-te.
02:44
The problem for the Medieval Spanish scholars
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Problemi per dijetaret Mesjetare Spanjoll
02:46
who were tasked with translating this material
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te cilet kishin per detyre perkthimin e ketij materiali
02:49
is that the letter SHeen and the word shalan
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esht se shkronja SHeen dhe fjala shalan
02:53
can't be rendered into Spanish
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nuk mund te kthehen ne Spanjisht
02:55
because Spanish doesn't have that SH,
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sepse spanjishtja (si gjuhe) nuk e njeh shkronjen SH,
02:58
that "sh" sound.
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ose me mire, tingullin ''sh''.
02:59
So by convention,
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Pra per marreveshje,
03:01
they created a rule in which
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ata krijuan nje rregull, ne baze te se ciles
03:02
they borrowed the CK sound, "ck" sound,
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ata huazuan tingullin CK,
03:07
from the classical Greek
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nga Greqishtja klasike
03:08
in the form of the letter Kai.
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ne formen e shkronjes Kai.
03:11
Later when this material was translated
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Me vone, kur ky material u perkthye
03:14
into a common European language,
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ne nje gjuhe te perbashket Evropiane,
03:16
which is to say Latin,
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e cila ishte Latinishtja,
03:18
they simply replaced the Greek Kai
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ato thjeshte zevendsuan shkronjen greke Kai
03:20
with the Latin X.
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me shkronjen latine X.
03:23
And once that happened,
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Ne momentin kur ky zevendesim u krye,
03:24
once this material was in Latin,
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dhe materiali u mundesua ne latinisht,
03:26
it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks
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formoi bazen per librat shkollor te matmatikes
03:30
for almost 600 years.
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per pothuajse 600 vjet.
03:32
But now we have the answer to our question.
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Por tanime e kemi pergjigjien per pyetjen tone.
03:34
Why is it that X is the unknown?
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Pse eshte X e panjohura?
03:37
X is the unknown
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X eshte e panjohura
03:39
because you can't say "sh" in Spanish.
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per pamundesine e te thenit ''sh'' ne Spanjisht.
03:42
(Laughter)
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(Te qeshura)
03:45
And I thought that was worth sharing.
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Dhe une mendova se ky informacion ja vlente te shperhapej.
03:47
(Applause)
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(Duartrokitje)
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