Maths is such a subject about which every fourth person will say that he is scared. There will be very few people who will love maths. Although it is natural to feel scared, now see, when English letters appear in between the numbers, then fear and confusion are sure to happen. You must have noticed that the letter X is often used in mathematics. X itself is considered as variable (Why X used as variable). Do you know the reason? Let us tell you.
People often ask answers to strange questions on the social media platform Quora. Recently someone asked – “Why do we consider only ‘X’ in mathematics?” The question is quite interesting, because you must have also noticed that X is often used in Maths (X as variable in Maths). Before answering this question directly, let us explain to you how and where Algebra, a discipline of mathematics, started. Algebra was introduced in Arab countries.
To understand the reason for the use of X, it is important to understand the history of algebra. (Photo: Canva)
Where did algebra begin?
It is believed that the period from 750 to 1258 was the golden age of Islamic civilization. During this time, Algebra was invented in the Middle East. Muhammad al-Khwarizmi wrote ‘Kitab-al-Jabr-wal-Muqabla’ in the 9th century. Later ‘Al-Jabr’ came to be called ‘Algebra’. When the followers of Islam propagated this book in Europe, the Spanish scholars could not speak many words of Arabic language.
For this reason X is considered a variable
According to the report of ‘Today I Found Out’ website, Terry More, director of ‘The Radius Foundation’, had given more information on this topic in the ‘Ted Talk’ show. He told that in Spanish language there is no Arabic sound ‘sh’ which is the sound of the letter ‘sheen’. In such a situation, those people were not able to speak it. In Arabic the unknown variable was called ‘al-shalan’. For this reason, he changed this sound into the Greek letter ‘Chi’ which is the 22nd letter of Greek and wrote it as ‘X’. It is called Chi and written as X. Later it was directly changed to Latin X, which is still known as English X. This theory related to X is quite famous and even PhD scholars mention it, but there is no concrete evidence related to this theory. Nor is it written anywhere about it. In such a situation, News18 Hindi does not claim that it is correct.
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FIRST PUBLISHED: November 9, 2024, 11:06 IST