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1、TED英語演講稿：為什么X代表未知？ ihavetheanswertoaquestionthatwe'veallasked.thequestionis,whyisitthattheletterxrepresentstheunknown?nowiknowwelearnedthatinmathclass,butnowit'severywhereintheculture--thexprize,thex-files,projectx,tedx.where'dthatcomefrom? aboutsixyearsagoidecidedthatiwouldlearnarabic,whichturns
2、outtobeasupremelylogicallanguage.towriteawordoraphraseorasentenceinarabicislikecraftinganequation,becauseeverypartisextremelypreciseandcarriesalotofinformation.that'soneofthereasonssomuchofwhatwe'vecometothinkofaswesternscienceandmathematicsandengineeringwasreallyworkedoutinthefirstfewcenturiesofth
3、ecommonerabythepersiansandthearabsandtheturks. thisincludesthelittlesysteminarabiccalledal-jebra.andal-jebrroughlytranslatesto"thesystemforreconcilingdisparateparts."al-jebrfinallycameintoenglishasalgebra.oneexampleamongmany. thearabictextscontainingthismathematicalwisdomfinallymadetheirwaytoeuro
4、pe--whichistosayspain--inthe11thand12thcenturies.andwhentheyarrivedtherewastremendousinterestintranslatingthiswisdomintoaeuropeanlanguage. buttherewereproblems.oneproblemistherearesomesoundsinarabicthatjustdon'tmakeitthroughaeuropeanvoiceboxwithoutlotsofpractice.trustmeonthatone.also,thoseverysoun
5、dstendnottoberepresentedbythecharactersthatareavailableineuropeanlanguages. here'soneoftheculprits.thisisthelettersheen,anditmakesthesoundwethinkofassh--"sh."it'salsotheveryfirstletterofthewordshalan,whichmeans"something"justlikethetheenglishword"something"--someundefined,unknownthing. nowinarabi
6、c,wecanmakethisdefinitebyaddingthedefinitearticle"al."sothisisal-shalan--theunknownthing.andthisisawordthatappearsthroughoutearlymathematics,suchasthis10thcenturyderivationofproofs. theproblemforthemedievalspanishscholarswhoweretaskedwithtranslatingthismaterialisthatthelettersheenandthewordshalanc
7、an'tberenderedintospanishbecausespanishdoesn'thavethatsh,that"sh"sound.sobyconvention,theycreatedaruleinwhichtheyborrowedthecksound,"ck"sound,fromtheclassicalgreekintheformoftheletterkai. laterwhenthismate
