2022: Creating a Lexicon of Future

Field Guide to Flourishing: X is for the X-Factor

The X-Factor

The Letter X

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