课程咨询

SAT考试网 美本资料下载 24考试辅导 0元讲座 考前测试

新东方在线 > SAT > SAT阅读 > 正文
美国本科留学资料领取

扫码添加助教

免费领取

备考资料大礼包

扫码关注公众号

新SAT必读演讲：Jean-Baptiste Michel

2016-03-25 17:43:53来源：网络

　　新SAT必读演讲字幕

　　00:11

　　So it turns out that mathematics is a very powerful language. It has generated considerable insight in physics, in biology and economics, but not that much in the humanities and in history. I think there's a belief that it's just impossible, that you cannot quantify the doings of mankind, that you cannot measure history. But I don't think that's right. I want to show you a couple of examples why.

　　00:32

　　So my collaborator Erez and I were considering the following fact: that two kings separated by centuries will speak a very different language. That's a powerful historical force. So the king of England, Alfred the Great, will use a vocabulary and grammar that is quite different from the king of hip hop, Jay-Z. (Laughter) Now it's just the way it is. Language changes over time, and it's a powerful force.

　　00:55

　　So Erez and I wanted to know more about that. So we paid attention to a particular grammatical rule, past-tense conjugation. So you just add "ed" to a verb at the end to signify the past. "Today I walk. Yesterday I walked." But some verbs are irregular. "Yesterday I thought." Now what's interesting about that is irregular verbs between Alfred and Jay-Z have become more regular. Like the verb "to wed" that you see here has become regular.

　　01:18

　　So Erez and I followed the fate of over 100 irregular verbs through 12 centuries of English language,and we saw that there's actually a very simple mathematical pattern that captures this complex historical change, namely, if a verb is 100 times more frequent than another, it regularizes 10 times slower. That's a piece of history, but it comes in a mathematical wrapping.

　　01:39

　　Now in some cases math can even help explain, or propose explanations for, historical forces. So here Steve Pinker and I were considering the magnitude of wars during the last two centuries. There's actually a well-known regularity to them where the number of wars that are 100 times deadlier is 10 times smaller. So there are 30 wars that are about as deadly as the Six Days War, but there's only four wars that are 100 times deadlier -- like World War I. So what kind of historical mechanism can produce that? What's the origin of this?

　　02:12

　　So Steve and I, through mathematical analysis, propose that there's actually a very simple phenomenon at the root of this, which lies in our brains. This is a very well-known feature in which we perceive quantities in relative ways -- quantities like the intensity of light or the loudness of a sound. For instance, committing 10,000 soldiers to the next battle sounds like a lot. It's relatively enormous if you've already committed 1,000 soldiers previously. But it doesn't sound so much, it's not relatively enough, it won't make a difference if you've already committed 100,000 soldiers previously. So you see that because of the way we perceive quantities, as the war drags on, the number of soldiers committed to it and the casualties will increase not linearly -- like 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 -- but exponentially -- 10,000, later 20,000, later 40,000. And so that explains this pattern that we've seen before.

　　03:05

　　So here mathematics is able to link a well-known feature of the individual mind with a long-term historical pattern that unfolds over centuries and across continents.

　　03:17

　　So these types of examples, today there are just a few of them, but I think in the next decade they will become commonplace. The reason for that is that the historical record is becoming digitized at a very fast pace. So there's about 130 million books that have been written since the dawn of time.Companies like Google have digitized many of them -- above 20 million actually. And when the stuff of history is available in digital form, it makes it possible for a mathematical analysis to very quickly and very conveniently review trends in our history and our culture.

　　03:48

　　So I think in the next decade, the sciences and the humanities will come closer together to be able to answer deep questions about mankind. And I think that mathematics will be a very powerful language to do that. It will be able to reveal new trends in our history, sometimes to explain them, and maybe even in the future to predict what's going to happen.

　　04:09

　　Thank you very much.

　　04:11

　　(Applause)

SAT水平能力测试【0元免费测试】

本文关键字: 新SAT考试 SAT阅读 SAT必读演讲

上一页 1 2 3 下一页

美本留学资料大礼包

微信扫描二维码 回复【美本资料】

机考SATCB官方样题｜可汗练习题｜AP全科大纲/备考资料包

更多资料

添加美本助教
即可获取美本资料大礼包

美本资料大礼包
  • 1.打开手机微信【扫一扫】，识别上方二维码；
  • 2.添加【美本助教】，回复上方关键字领取学习资料。
更多>>
更多内容
课程咨询 ACT课程 SAT课程 0元公开课 水平诊断

添加美本助教号

自动领取备考资料大礼包

1. 打开手机微信【扫一扫】，识别上方二维码；
2.添加【美本助教】，自动领取留学备考资料大礼包。

可汗学院新SAT题目完整版

微信扫描下方二维码 即可获取

SAT1500分录播课（旗舰版+1对1） 托福精讲录播课（旗舰版） 托福8-10人直播VIP小班
更多>>
更多公开课>>

2023美本留学资料免费领取

微信添加美本助教

新东方美本助教
更多>>
更多资料
我要
反馈 返回
首页
课程咨询 课程中心 0元讲座 SAT模考网站 托福TPO模考网站 SAT课程

添加新东方在线美本助教号

自动领取备考资料大礼包

1. 打开手机微信【扫一扫】，识别上方二维码；
2.添加【Ella助教】，自动领取留学备考资料大礼包。

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10