Television (TV)

The first working television was invented by Philo Farnsworth in 1927, when he was just 21 years old!

The word “television” comes from Greek “tele” meaning “far” and Latin “visio” meaning “sight” – literally meaning “seeing from afar”!

Before color TV was invented in 1953, people could only watch shows in black and white, just like old photographs!

The first TV commercial aired in 1941 and was only 10 seconds long, advertising Bulova watches!

The first television remote control was created in 1950 and was called the “Lazy Bones,” connected to the TV with a long wire!

The famous “test pattern” with colored bars you sometimes see on TV was created in 1939 to help engineers adjust TV displays!

The first regular television broadcasts began in 1936 in London, England by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)!

In 1969, over 600 million people worldwide watched the Apollo 11 moon landing on television, making it one of the first global TV events!

Early TVs were enormous furniture pieces with tiny screens — a 12-inch screen TV from the 1950s could weigh over 100 pounds (45 kg)!

Television signals were first transmitted using radio waves, just like how we send messages to space!

The first TV in space was aboard the Skylab space station in 1973, allowing astronauts to watch shows while orbiting Earth!

The first handheld portable television was invented in 1982 by Sony and was called the “Watchman” with a tiny 2-inch screen!

The switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting in the United States was completed in 2009, improving picture quality for everyone!

The first flat-screen TVs that could hang on walls like pictures were introduced in the late 1990s, replacing bulky tube TVs!

Television broadcasting was suspended in many countries during World War II (1939-1945) so that radio frequencies could be used for military communication!

Traditional TVs create pictures by shooting tiny beams of electrons at a screen coated with special materials that glow when hit!

Modern LCD TVs contain millions of tiny liquid crystal cells that act like tiny shutters, letting different colored light through to form images!

A single frame on your TV screen is made up of millions of tiny colored dots called pixels – the more pixels, the clearer the picture!

Television signals travel at the speed of light, approximately 186,000 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second), which is why live broadcasts from around the world appear instantly on your screen!

The “refresh rate” of a TV (measured in Hertz or Hz) tells you how many times per second the image updates – most modern TVs refresh 60 to 120 times every second!

TV remote controls use invisible infrared light to send signals to your television – like using a flashlight that only your TV can see!

TVs create all the colors you see using just three primary colors: red, green, and blue (RGB) – mixing them in different amounts to make millions of shades!

Satellite TV works by sending signals 22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers) up to satellites orbiting Earth, which then beam them back down to dishes on people’s homes!

The “aspect ratio” of a TV screen (like 16:9) tells you its shape – older TVs were more square (4:3), while newer ones are wider like a movie screen!

HDTV (High Definition Television) shows at least five times more detail than the old standard TVs, making images look super sharp and clear!

Smart TVs have tiny computers built inside them, allowing them to connect to the internet and run apps just like your phone or tablet!

Television antennas work by capturing invisible electromagnetic waves that are traveling through the air all around us!

Cable TV sends signals through special cables buried underground or strung on poles, protecting the picture quality from interference by weather!

3D TVs create the illusion of depth by showing slightly different images to each of your eyes, tricking your brain into seeing three dimensions!

The speakers in your TV convert electrical signals into physical vibrations in the air, which your ears detect as sound!

The largest TV in the world is 301 feet (92 meters) wide and 88 feet (27 meters) tall – about the size of a football field – located at a racetrack in Texas!

Modern 8K TVs have 33 million pixels (7680 x 4320 pixels) – if you tried to count each pixel at one per second, it would take you more than a year without stopping!

Some advanced TVs can display over 1 billion different colors, far more than the 1 million colors the human eye can actually distinguish!

The thinnest TV ever made is just 1.4 millimeters thick – about the thickness of a U.S. quarter coin!

Voice-controlled TVs can understand and respond to over 100,000 different voice commands, like a robot that listens to you!

Some modern TVs can automatically adjust their brightness and color based on the lighting in your room, like having eyes that sense the environment!

TVs with “quantum dot” technology use tiny particles 10,000 times smaller than a human hair to create more vibrant colors!

As of 2025, the fastest TV refresh rate available is 165Hz, meaning it shows 165 different images every single second!

Some high-end TVs can “upscale” lower-quality videos to look better by using artificial intelligence to add missing details!

Curved TVs are designed to match the natural curve of your eyes, giving you a more immersive feeling like being in a movie theater!

The first folding TV was unveiled in 2020 and can roll up like a poster when not in use, hiding completely inside its base!

Some TVs have “ambient mode” that makes them blend into your wall like a chameleon when not in use, showing artwork or mimicking your wallpaper!

Modern gaming TVs have response times as low as 1 millisecond – that’s 1/1000th of a second, faster than you can blink!

Some TVs can now display “HDR” (High Dynamic Range) content with 64 times more color detail than standard TVs, showing details in very bright and very dark areas!

The latest transparent TVs can switch between being see-through like a window and showing a normal TV picture!

The TV show “60 Minutes” has used the same stopwatch ticking sound at the beginning of each episode since 1968!

The world’s smallest working television is about the size of a postage stamp.

The TV remote control is the most used electronic device in most homes – a typical remote button is pressed more than 300,000 times during its lifetime!

If you watched TV for 8 hours every day, it would take you more than 20 years to watch all the TV shows and movies currently available!

The average American child will see about 20,000 TV commercials every year – that’s more than 50 commercials every day!