Member-only story

2021: Creating the Lexicon of Future

Ruth Glendinning
2 min readMay 15, 2021

--

X is for X-Factor

The X-Factor

The Letter X

The letter X stands for the unknown or the mysterious: Project X; the X-Men; the X-Files. When physicist Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a baffling new form of radiation in 1895, naturally he named them “X-Rays”. We absorbed these cultural connotations long before we encountered X in maths class, where we learned to solve algebraic equations for X. But why not some other letter? Why does X always stand for the unknown? ~ Why X marks the unknown

X is the Unknown

Why is it that X is the unknown? X is the unknown because you can’t say “sh” in Spanish. Full video:

X is a Designator

X is a Multiplier

“Multiplication of species [i.e. unknowns] connects both proposed magnitudes with the symbol ‘in’ or ×: or ordinarily without the symbol if the magnitudes be denoted with one letter”. ~ Wikipedia

X Holds the Story of Past, Present and Future

--

--

Ruth Glendinning
Ruth Glendinning

Written by Ruth Glendinning

Community Architect // Published Poet // Future Story Lab // Anti-Fragile Playbook // S.L.O.W. Tech // #womenswork Buy my book! https://a.co/d/5MG47Di

No responses yet