After a short hiatus (mostly consisting of feeding a baby and cleaning up her poop), I thought I would come back to Ted Talk Tuesday with something on the lighter side. In this talk, Terry Moore explains how the letter “x” came to symbolize an unknown factor – not only in mathematics, but in many other arenas as well. By the time you get to the end, you will have the one sentence answer to the question: “Why is “x” the unknown?” And, like Terry Moore, I think it’s worth sharing.
And now for something completely different. The video above is a product of TedEd and a collaboration of TED speakers and animators. Visualizing this particular talk from John Lloyd really brings to life his subject. When we discuss that which is invisible (and that which we don’t know), we are reminded just how little we do know. I think that, in itself, calls into question how anyone could be considered an “expert” on anything. I guess an expert is just someone who knows more than others about a subject. Or, more aptly put, a person who doesn’t know even less than others. (Think about it. It’s true.) I hope you enjoy this picture of the invisible!
