The GHZ Forum

I know there are quite a few musicians or music-related people here. So, I'm doing this work about walkman ergonomics and was thinking about talking a bit about the origins of the PLAY symbol. You know, the little triangle. Along with all of his friends. Anyway, I haven't been able to get any information anywhere, so you guys are kinda my last hope here.

Maybe not the last, but some hope.

C'mon, don't disappoint me! =)

It was probably just a stylized arrow pointing in the way the cassette motor spun. And it just stuck for everything because the Walkman was so sexy. If you think about it, CDs also spin in the same direction. Even hard drives spin in the same direction.

That's just my theory.

I'm more interested in what the deal is with the on symbol - the circle with the little line through it. Doesn't look like "on" to me. Looks like a weird Q.

That's supposed to look like a key in a car igntion.

I once had a portable cassette player (like, a walkman-style one) whose play button pointed to the left. That thing would always play my tapes slightly too fast. I miss it so.

Zeta - I think that line's supposed to be the path of the button, lowering it into the circuit (the circle), closing it and making it functional. Just a guess.

http://www.historyofthebutton.com/2006/ ... ord-icons/

NVM: This isnt the answer...

MegaKitsune wrote:That's supposed to look like a key in a car igntion.

No, the power symbol is a 1 and a 0, and symbolizes an interference in the cycles of a system.

Binary/boolean logic. 0 is false/off, 1 is true/on. Therefore, the symbol is just both "on" and "off" put together in a compact fashion.

The combined 1/0 on power buttons is just a reduction of the separated 1/0 on actual switches.