Just watched an old "Secret Life of the Office" video by Tim Hunkin about the fax machine. Early ones, he explained, were thermal printers and had 1728 little heating elements across the width of the page.
Of course I immediately spotted that 1728 = 12^3, which seems an odd weird choice of number, it's not a binary power of 2, but cannot be a coincidence.
Does anyone know why that number?
Thermal printing fax machines and 1728.
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Thermal printing fax machines and 1728.
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Re: Thermal printing fax machines and 1728.
I'd say a credible explanation is that the scan/print heads use 8 pixels per mm, and foolscap paper (often used in USA) is 216mm wide.Boustrophedon wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:51 pmJust watched an old "Secret Life of the Office" video by Tim Hunkin about the fax machine. Early ones, he explained, were thermal printers and had 1728 little heating elements across the width of the page.
Of course I immediately spotted that 1728 = 12^3, which seems an odd weird choice of number, it's not a binary power of 2, but cannot be a coincidence.
Does anyone know why that number?
It being 12^3 is a coincidence.
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!
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Re: Thermal printing fax machines and 1728.
Looks like that’s correct: https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/g ... chine2.htmGfamily wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:20 pmI'd say a credible explanation is that the scan/print heads use 8 pixels per mm, and foolscap paper (often used in USA) is 216mm wide.Boustrophedon wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 8:51 pmJust watched an old "Secret Life of the Office" video by Tim Hunkin about the fax machine. Early ones, he explained, were thermal printers and had 1728 little heating elements across the width of the page.
Of course I immediately spotted that 1728 = 12^3, which seems an odd weird choice of number, it's not a binary power of 2, but cannot be a coincidence.
Does anyone know why that number?
It being 12^3 is a coincidence.