A truly X-cellent and X-ceptional video…
Join our Patreon community:
↓↓↓ More info and sources below ↓↓↓
Despite being one of the rarest letters in English, the letter X is everywhere. We sign letters with it, we rate movies with it, we name all sorts of things after it. We’re kind of obsessed with it. And that’s probably all thanks to math, where X stands for the unknown. Let’s explore the bizarre history of how X took on this role…
References:
SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! ►►
———–
High fives to all our Brain Trust Patrons:
Charles Horton, Jr
Holly, Brett, and Ashe Bullion
Jaap Westera
Millennial Glacier
Mehdi Damou
Barbora Bei
Burt Humburg
dani bowman
David Johnston
Baerbel Winkler
Robert Young
Eric Meer
Karen Haskell
Join us on Patreon!
Merch
So now you know how X took over math, but let's give it some love in regular language: Post your favorite word containing X below! Mine is equinox
X is to replace the pronunciation ch (ck) in Latin (and English language) shaya' ( شيء) which means "something" in Arabic language ..
So X = something (unknown) (which needs to be found)
2^x = 6 has two solutions.
6:20 Umm… It's written incorrectly (from left to right). It's “ شيء ”
4:31 I don't think anyone here understands arabic… But as a native, man, he's even explaining why it's called “division” in a linguistic way 🫠
Plus, I think this piece of paper is recent, cause an alternative letter we use nowadays in arabic is used instead of x, “ س ” (Seen). Maybe because in the past arabic was written without dots, so “ش ” (sheen) was written literally as same as “ س ” (seen).
0:43 Isn't it “ x = 2a ” ? 🫠
Thank you for sharing this!
As a Persian, I was always wondering why Al-Khwarizmi, who was Persian, wrote in Arabic instead of Persian especially since we already had our own language and alphabet.
But then I realized that at that time, Arabic was the language of knowledge and science.
So he wrote in Arabic because he wanted his work and ideas to be shared, read, and understood by as many people as possible.
11:32 – Did he say "mathumatician"??? LOL!!!
The files scully investigates
X isn't pronounced as kai in Greek. It's pronounced as he. It's not kristos, it's hristos.
I JUST NOTICED, in the alphabet segment where P says Egzactly, Y is missing!
Its quite simple: When Elon bought Twitter and named it X, everybody was like "Nah, mate I don't know about this one"
awsome.
Surprised given Decarte's philosophy on god that X wasn't a stand-in for Christos.
we dont call it "kai" we call it "chi"
Civil engineer, here.
Algebraic variables, or letters as they are known, are chosen and used kind of arbitrarily.
The fact that X was chosen as "unknown"…for arbitrary reasons.
I.e. I wouldn't worry about this too much. Just get good at algebra — this is the golden prize !
1:10 y so obsessed with x
Y was missing from the alphabet and it threw me for a loop.
I thought u said “Alpha rizz me” 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Where is scifi?
I always thought it was a bit of a pity that the letter that caught on to be the quintessential unknown letter already had several functions, even in terms of calculation – X is also a multiplication symbol (I remember having to use cursive versions of it to distinguish it as a variable, which isn't always easy if I'm entering an answer digitally) and the Romans also used it to represent the fixed value of 10 (I remember using it as the Roman numeral once and having someone try to "correct" me that it's actually an unknown value). Somewhat ironically, it seems attempting to choose an unusual letter to use as the default unknown value led to the choice of one which is actually strangely overworked.
The fact that "(X)enophobia" also means the fear of the unknown/strangers
If it weren't for X, we wouldn't have a way to close an app or browser. Oh the horror.
I used to like a show called Psi Chronicles. Total X files ripoff, but it was explaind that Greeks used psi like we use X. Fuckifiknow…
Did anyone else notice the missing Y in the alphabet at 0:29?
x is such an important letter even though in English it’s rarely used , so people forget about it
X represents the unknown. Which is why XXX is used to represent the unknown parts hidden by your clothes! 😅
Seriously, Y X?
To find the unowns just go down to the ruins of Alph and you will find plenty
6:20 it's not yash, it's shay: شيء
Also, there's never been any k-eye in Greek. It was closer to key back then and is now like he.
because Y not?
Bro is taking "Find X" to a whole new meaning💀
proud descendent of the glorious phoenicians.
not shay, "shai"
X marks the point where oscillation becomes invisible vibration strings in an atom. Mysterious.
I'm disappointed that you forgot Chemical X. 😛
In fact, the word shay is spelled this way شيء