Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown? (Giulia Pérez-Pujol)

Giulia Pérez-Pujol Nichilo

Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?

This Ted Talk from Terry Moore explains why the letter “x” is the unknown letter that is always used in mathematics and in our lifes, like: the price x, the x files, project x, …

Moore says he studied Arabic 6 years ago, and says that is a language absolutely logic and that’s the reason why the algebra and all the mathematic systems of occident were formulated by the Arabian people.

The problem appeared when Arabians wanted to inculcate this mathematics in Europe, because there are some Arabian sounds that didn’t exist in the European language, so the sound “sh” means “something” but with the prefix “al” it means “something unknown”.

So the Arabians borrowed the sound “ck” from the classic greek that sounds like “ji”, and consequently, it was translated to latin that means the letter “x” for the Europeans.

In conclusion, the letter x is the letter that means the unknown because the Arabic language have lots of sounds which didn’t exist in the European language.