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Facebook invented a new time unit called the 'flick' and it's truly amazing
So what is a flick? A flick is one seven hundred and five million six hundred thousandth of a second — 1/705,600,000 if you prefer the digits, or 1.417233560090703e-9 if you prefer decimals. And why is that useful?
As a hint, here's a list of numbers into which 1/706,600,000 divides evenly: 8, 16, 22.05, 24, 25, 30, 32, 44.1, 48, 50, 60, 90, 100, 120. Notice a pattern? Even if you don't work in media production, some of those numbers probably look familiar. That's because they're all framerates or frequencies used in encoding or showing things like films and music. 24 frames per second, 120 hertz TVs, 44.1 KHz sample rate audio.
[...] Even the weird NTSC numbers in use due to certain technical constraints divide nicely. 23.976 (technically 24*(1,000/1,001)=23.976023976230 with the last 6 digits repeating) becomes exactly 29,429,400 flicks. It's the same for 29.97, 59.94, and any others like them. No more fractions or decimals needed whatsoever! How great is that?!
There is more detail and background information on GitHub.
Do you give a flick? How many flicks do you feel you have wasted on this article?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:52PM (1 child)
Up until fairly recently, I had very little respect for things like Justin Bieber and Facebook. I recognize what they do, I recognize their place and respective niches, but just didn't have a lot of respect for them.
Then...
The renown music geek Skrillex, who I respect and admire, made a single with Bieber.... Thus causing me to confer on Mr. Bieber begrudging, but genuine, respect.
This is even better.
Someone within Facebook seems to have done something super-geeky-cool with math and Facebook itself is recognizing and embracing that. That right there is news for nerds, and that matters to me.
Sure, they are still Bieber and Facebook, respectively, but Now With More Respect!
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 24 2018, @04:38PM
Like when Leonardo DiCaprio starred in "Catch Me If You Can".
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"