Looking for a large mobile phone?

Give me strength.

You're wrong. The advert's wrong. It's quite simple.
13cm2 means an area of 13cm x 13cm.

13 sq cm means an area of 13cm x 1cm (stacked however you like).

Is it REALLY such a difficult concept to grasp?

No, because the superscript ² belongs with the cm. It's "13(cm²)", not "(13cm)²". That's the convention we were taught at school, anyway. Reading it out as "thirteen centimetres, squared" is wrong, but I think most people these days would automatically assume you were talking about square centimetres.

A rectangle with sides of 5cm and 3cm has an area of 15cm².

The ad is correct, although I think most casual viewers would come away with the impression that the screen is bigger than it is.

Noodle

(edit: a tiny bit of online research seems to show that most people use "square centimetres" and "centimetres squared" interchangeably. "Thirteen centimetres square" without the d seems to be the exception.

...erm...

I KNOW the superscript ² belongs with the "cm". cm² is the symbol for "centimetres squared". x cm² is NOT the same as (x cm)².

(x cm)² = x² cm² i.e. (13 cm)² = 169 cm².

So 13cm² is as I said. 13cm x 13cm. Nothing anyone else can say on here, playing about with parenthesis can disprove it.

Anyway, the point I've made has obviously fell flat on its face - just goes to show that no matter how clued-up tech-wise people on this forum are, they can't handle the basics if their computer is taken away.



What research is this? I can't find any. You've made it up. Even if many people DO use them interchangeably, it doesn't mean they're right. I take it you believe everything you read in the papers too.

Can anyone solve a memory lapse for me though?

What was the title of the C4 programme of 3 to 4 years ago that featured a man talking loudly into a 3 fool long (long not squared) mobile phone?

Would much appreciate the momory jog here. Thanks.

Trigger Happy TV with Dom Joly.

Fine programme.

A great programme, and finally a television slant...

That's the thing. "cm²" is a single symbol for a unit of area. In that sense it's no different to "g" for gram. 13g is thirteen lots of one gram. 13cm² is thirteen lots of one cm².

When I said online research, I meant I did a few Googles. The topic of "centimetres squared" vs "square centimetres" is a popular one, but no-one's in any doubt about what cm² means.

Google is coming up a bit short on cm², probably because no-one can be bothered to write ². But try this page where a Doctor Peterson (presumably a Doctor of Mathematics) states categorically that a rectangle 3m by 4m has an area of 12m².

Or this, from a mathematics glossary:



"sq cm" is interchangeable with "cm²". 13 of those would have the same area as a rectangle 13cm by 1cm. If you still think otherwise find a maths text book, or complain to Offcom.

Sorry to everyone for going so off topic... although it does go to show that there are no grounds for complaint against the ad.

David

As far as I'm concerned, London still has two STD codes, no matter what anyone else says. The last time London
had one single STD code, was back in the 1980's, when all London telephone numbers were prefixed with "01", so
a typical London telephone number, such like the one used by the BBC for Saturday morning kids TV shows
such as Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore, would be in the form of "01 811 8055". The "01" prefix was
replaced (in 1989 IIRC) by two new seperate prefixes 081 and 071, which in turn, were replaced about
five years later (either 1994 or 1995) with 0181 and 0171 respectively.

In 2000 (or thereabouts) these prefixes were replaced by 0208 and 0207 respectively. If you consider
the London STD code to be just "020" (which IMO looks stupid) then Londoners have to add 8 or 7 to
their local phone numbers, depending on the part of London they're in

Meanwhile, wouldn't this subject be better discussed at Metropol 24/7, rather than TV Forum . . . ?

WRONG. The London code is 020, and at the time of the change all existing numbers had either 7 or 8 added to the front of them.

This allows the potential for future expansion:

020 1XXX XXXX
020 2XXX XXXX
020 3XXX XXXX
020 4XXX XXXX
020 5XXX XXXX
020 6XXX XXXX
020 9XXX XXXX

It's really quite simple.

The London code is 020

To make a local call within London from a landline, it is necessary to dial an eight digit number.

At the moment these are all in the form 7XXX XXXX or 8XXX XXXX, but this will change in the future.

If you live in inner London, is it not the case that you dial another inner London number without the '7' prefix?

No. If you live in the 020 7 (central) area, you must dial 7xxx xxxx to reach another central area number. Similiarly, if you live in the 020 8 (outer) area, you must dial 8xxx xxxx to reach another outer area number. A central-to-outer call must still be prefixed with an 8, and an outer-to-central call must still be prefixed with a 7. The only advantage is that the 020 prefix can be omitted, which is an improvement over the previous 0171/0181 codes were in place, where the full eleven-digit code had to be dialled when calling another area (although the 0171/0181 prefix could be omitted when calling within the same area, just as in all other parts of the country).

The important thing is to stress that there is no longer any distinction between inner and outer London - the fact that most inner London numbers start with 7 and outer London with 8 is just a legacy thing and has no current relevance.