However, when we do think about them, some of them start to seem a little strange. We recognize the broken circle with a line in it as a power button, but what about that design would suggest that's what it does if we didn't already know that? These are the sort of things you think about in the shower and forget by the time you towel off but that doesn't mean you can't have the answer.
It's also interesting to see how deep the history of such a small thing goes, as you're about to see.
COMMENT and tell us what everyday symbols seem weird to you.
To find out where the power button symbol came from, we have to go back in time.
This time, we're going back to the 1940s where some of the world's earliest computers were used for breaking Nazi codes. You may notice the complex web of wires and switches that people had to use back then.
Of course, they needed a system to manage all of those switches.
So they used binary, the language of computers we all know and love today. Each switch was then marked with a one and a zero.
Back then, operating a computer basically meant turning the right mix of switches on and off.
So if a switch was set to one, that meant it was on, while a zero meant it was off.
As computers got more advanced, all those switches were reduced to one button.
Manufacturers then needed a way to reflect this change, so this is what they did.
They put the one and the zero together.
Yeah, that's what the broken circle and the line are supposed to be. This told people that this one button could handle both the on and off commands they used to need a switch for.
Yet, the next problem came when it was time to name this button.
The International Electrotechnical Commission insisted on calling it the "standby power state." Yet, no matter how hard they tried to make that name stick, it didn't really catch on.
Plus, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers thought that name was too vague.
So instead, they simply went with "power" and it didn't take long for all of us to follow suit.
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