TV Measurement

[eash]

My daft old mum thinks that when a telly is described as 26" for example it's from corner to corner but diagonally! What The Funicular?! I've tried explaining to her that's it's from left to right as you don't watch a TV diagonally but she doesn't get it! She is definitely losing it!
I know it's not a question but I just felt like sharing my frustration with you all!

[eash]

In my question I did not write What The Funicular! I just wrote the letters w t f. How odd.

[Buenchico]

This sounds like a definite case of "Mummy knows best" ;-)

TV screen sizes have always been measured diagonally!

[sherrardk]

That's how you measure TV's - diagonally (don't know why though).

[poodicat]

Love yer mum,my mum was quite on the ball with televisons and such, seeing that she used to work for a major retailer

[snags]

''She is definitely losing it!''

I think not!

[eash]

Oh right, well I never knew that! lol You learn something new everyday! Wonder why that is then...?

[ttfn]

Only 2 diagonals and they read the same length. Otherwise the reading of inches could be for height or width of screen and lead to confusion.

[karenmac60]

It also makes them sound bigger - if men ever catch on to that..... ;)

[hc4361]

You don't watch a tv from left to right, either. It's not like reading a book.

[4getmenot]

hope you apologised to your mum

[factorfiction]

seems it could be misleading though and could encourage makers to make wide screens that aren't very high rather than sqaure ones. Here's my thinking:

A square screen 20 inches by 20 inches has an area of 400 sq inches and a diagonal (pause while I recall my pythagoras) of 28.3 inches.

But a long thin screen with the same area that measures 40 x 10 inches would have a diagonal of 41.2 inches.

So the long thin one has a much longer diagonal but is it really any bigger?

Okay a square screen would look odd, but maybe the screen area is a better guide than the diagonal?

[sarah_louise]

Also if you actually measure it you will probably find it is about half an inch less because the size is actually the LCD tablet or the cathode ray tube diagonal partly obscured by the tv frame so not the visible size.

[ABerrant]

CRT diagonal measurements included the edges of the screen masked by the cabinet e.g. a nominal 28" screen would have about 26.5" viewable.

LCD diagonal measurements indicate the visible diagonal e.g. a 32" widescreen LCD TV has 32" viewable.