{"id":2041,"date":"2020-04-28T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T04:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2020-04-26T18:01:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T22:01:22","slug":"a-to-z-challenge-2020-x-is-for-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=2041","title":{"rendered":"A to Z Challenge 2020: X is for Unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

X is for Unknown<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What makes the letter X so important? Think about all the words you know that start with the letter X. Not many are there? I can think of x-ray, xylophone, xenophobia, Xanadu, the element xenon, to mention a few. That\u2019s about it. You can pick any other letter and if I asked you to think up words that start with that letter, you would have no problem, with the exceptions of possibly Z and Q.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yet the letter X is one of our most important letters. Why do I say that? Think about where the letter X is used most often. Whenever you are solving a problem in math, what is the letter that is usually chosen to represent your answer?\u00a0 Instructions: \u201cSolve for X.\u201d Of all the letters of the alphabet, X is the one that is most often used. Even though when I taught math, I always told the class that an unknown can be represented by any letter, that all-important \u2018X\u2019 was the one that was usually chosen. And in most examples, it is the lower case \u2018x\u2019 that is the preferred version. If you needed a second variable, no doubt \u2018y\u2019 followed by \u2018z\u2019 were the preferred choices.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there are a number of you skeptics out there that feel the unknown number most used is \u2018n\u2019, however, my research has shown otherwise. Please don\u2019t ask me for my sources as they are personal and I had to sign an NDA (Nondisclosure agreement) with a very important legal firm.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are other important uses of the letter \u2018X\u2019. How else would you find a pirate\u2019s \"\"<\/a>hidden treasure, if you didn\u2019t have a map, where \u2018X\u2019 marked the spot. No other letter marks the spot. Personally I think that O should mark the spot allowing you a broader area to search in, giving you a better chance of finding what you\u2019re looking for, rather than the exact spot. And there was the classic treasure scene in the movie, \u201cIt\u2019s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World\u201d where the treasure is under the Big W, not an X.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And why is the game Tic-Tac-Toe played with X\u2019s and O\u2019s. Why not B\u2019s and R\u2019s for Black and Red or symbols like Checks (?) and Dollar signs (?). The game Score Four is played with disks of red and yellow.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The letter \u2018X\u2019 is clearly an important letter. X\u2019s are something to strive for. X\u2019s give you wealth (treasure maps), X\u2019s give you success (3 in a row in Tic-Tac-Toe), and demonstrate your great detective skills (Solve for X). So you should feel good about the letter X and its importance in our world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Therefore I propose that in order to keep the letter X, as the positive sign for accomplishing good things, that we, from this day forward, adopt the letter \u2018H\u2019 as the one chosen to mark things we do wrong. Abandon any negative connections to the letter X that say you did something bad. Replace it with a letter that stands for Help, which you surely need when you make a mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That\u2019s my plan and I\u2019m sticking to it. Who\u2019s with me?<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X is for Unknown \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What makes the letter X so important? Think about all the words you know that start with the letter X. Not many are there? I can think of x-ray, xylophone, xenophobia, Xanadu, the element xenon, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,9,7],"tags":[70,67,231],"class_list":["post-2041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2020","category-personal-stories","category-story-writing","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge","tag-harvey-heilbrun","tag-solve-for-x"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2041"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}