Mysteries of vernacular: X-ray,
通用俗语的谜团：“X-ray”，
a form of electromagnetic radiation capable of penetrating solids.
一种能够穿透固体的电磁辐射。
The word X-ray harkens back to the work of Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer in the 17th century.
“X-ray”一词可以追溯到勒内·笛卡尔的著作。笛卡尔是17世纪法国哲学家，数学家和作家。
One of Descartes innumerable contributions to the world of numbers
笛卡尔在数学界的众多贡献之一
was the invention of a simple yet brilliant convention most people take for granted today:
是发明了一个简洁而好用的惯例，一个大多数人今日习以为常的惯例，
the representation of unknowns within an equation as X, Y, and Z.
那就是在方程式中用X，Y，Z来代表未知量。
When the German scientist Wilhelm Rontgen discovered what we now call X-rays in the late 19th century,
当德国科学家威廉·伦琴在19世纪发现了我们现在所称的“X-ray”之后，
he gave them the name X-strahlen.
他给它起名叫“X-strahlen”。

Strahlen is German for shine,
“Strahlen”是德语照射的意思，
and X, of course, represented the unknown nature of the radiation Rontgen had discovered, the X-factor, so to speak.
而X，自然就是指伦琴发现的这种辐射的未知属性，X因子，也可以这么说。
The English translation maintained the X but replaced the German shine with ray, meaning a beam of light.
英文翻译保留了“X”，但将德语“shine”换成了“ray”，意思是一束光。
Coincidentally, in mathematics, the word ray refers to a line with a point of origin that has no end
巧合的是，数学中“ray”指的是射线，有起点而无尽头，
and extends to infinity, bringing us neatly back to the unknown.
延伸至无穷，这就又把我们带回了未知中。
Today we understand what X-radiation is, and in spite of the humble objections of its discoverer,
今天，我们明白了X光是什么，而在其发现者谦虚的反对声中，
it is also commonly called Rontgen Radiation, eliminating with the X the fundamental mystery of its nature.
X光又被叫做伦琴射线，不再有X，它的属性对我们也不再神秘。