[typing]
The power symbol. I imagine most
never give it much thought. Perhaps you just
accept that it's the symbol for power,
one of those things that's seemingly been around
forever. But someone had to come
up with it at some point in the past, and
it turns out there is a clear reason
that it looks the way it does. Not only
that, but there's more than one symbol
for power when it comes to technology
and each one means something different.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
To answer the big question of why the power
symbol looks like this you have to take
apart the symbol itself. This line right
here is meant to symbolize the number
one and the circular part symbolizes
zero. The idea comes from the binary
system where one means on and zero means
off, put them together and you have a
symbol that is supposed to be easily
understood as the symbol for power
turning on and off regardless of what
language the end user speaks.
Now, before this symbol existed power switches were
often simply labeled with the word on or off,
and sometimes they still are today,
there's actually nothing forcing anyone
to use the power symbol on their
products. But a dilemma arose during the
mid 20th century when electronic imports
and exports were exploding and the words
on and off were obviously only
meaningful to English speakers.
Combined with the fact that words are arguably
less elegant and compact than an icon of
some kind, and it was decided that an
international power symbol was needed.
And it wasn't just electronics and
appliances that needed a ubiquitous
language agnostic symbol, automobile
sales were quickly turning into a global
market as well, and there are a ton of
technical functions that need labeling,
many of which are commonplace across
vehicles worldwide.
Enter the International Electrotechnical Commission
or IEC, currently based in
Geneva, Switzerland. The IEC is a
non-profit non-governmental
international standards organization,
one of many groups that exists with the goal
of standardizing electrical technologies.
Universal power symbols were first
introduced in 1973
through the International Electrotechnical Commission 60417 Standard,
titled "Graphical Symbols for Use on Equipment."
The power symbol we talked
about earlier is actually called IEC 60417/5009
It is retroactively referred to as the
standby symbol. This symbol actually
means that pressing it can toggle the
device's power state, but does not
completely cut off power at the power
supply or the mains itself. That's why
you see this so often on desktop
computers and laptops because, pressing
it often engages a soft reset or soft
power off. Conversely if you look at the
power switch on a power supply, you'll
probably see the line and the circle of
the power symbol separately on each side
of the switch.
That means that toggling the switch
one way or another will
enable or disable the power completely.
Similarly there is the power on/off
symbol, which has the line inside of the
circle, and this means that pressing it
will either power a device fully on or
fully off with nothing in between.
And then there's a somewhat related symbol,
the waning crescent moon known as the
power sleep symbol. This is mostly seen
on desktop computer keyboards and
indicates that pressing it will put the
machine into sleep mode without cutting
power. This was created by the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
under the notion that the standby symbol
already in use was too vague. But yeah,
the full IEC 604 17 standard is
absolutely massive and pretty
fascinating if you ask me, defining
thousands of internationally used
symbols. Pretty much every button or
function you see on electronics,
automobiles and appliances made since
the mid-70s came from this list of
definitions: power standby, high beams, play,
pause, low battery, macro mode, risk of
electric shock, fragile, handle with care,
wireless communication, tape recorder,
operating system, or command key, the list
goes on and on. I find this whole list
oddly enjoyable to sift through.
There's just a satisfying aesthetic to these
things, and a minimalist yet effective
artistry going on, and it's kind of fun
to pick one you don't know and try to
guess what it means without looking it up;
after all these are meant to be
understandable regardless of what
language you speak. There is something
admirable about the pursuit of trying to
say the most by using the absolute least,
a sort of modern hieroglyphics,
understood not by any one community, but
by an entire planet. But as for the power
symbol in particular it seems to have
the most universal appeal, regardless of
its original meaning or intent. You see
it on t-shirts, corporate logos,
art exhibits, album covers, and even things
like cufflinks, earrings and tattoos.
Of all the symbols defined in IEC 60417,
the one for power is arguably the one to have
best achieved its goal of ubiquity
around the world, especially among the
tech loving community. Maybe it's just me,
but I think it's pretty neat to think
about the symbols we use every day
without a second glance, and now maybe you will too.
[Music]
And if you enjoyed this video, I think
you might like some of my others. I like
covering niche tech topics, it's just kind
of my thing, if you like that stick
around, and as always thank you very much
for watching LGR.