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posted by janrinok on Wednesday January 24 2018, @03:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the about-time dept.

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?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @05:16PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @05:16PM (#627229)

    Facebook invented a new time unit called the ‘flick’ and it’s truly amazing

    That title was so bad that it nearly prevented me from reading the article. I assumed it would be of no interest whatsoever, but be fair to user takyon I decided to read it before criticizing. I was pleasantly surprised to find an article of some minor interest rather than zero interest. Please, takyon, don't use ridiculous clickbait for a hyperlink even if it is the actual title of the linked content.

  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:56PM (1 child)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:56PM (#627341) Journal

    Facebook invented a new time unit called the ‘flick’ and it’s truly amazing

    That title was so bad that it nearly prevented me from reading the article.

    Keep in touch with friends and family effortlessly with this one weird, old trick. Part three will shock you!

    • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday January 24 2018, @09:32PM

      by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday January 24 2018, @09:32PM (#627394)

      Part three will shock you!

      Link, please.

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