Monday, January 4, 2010

Question - 400

The most persistent version of this urban legend connects a work of the man in the bottom right with one of the other 3 people shown. Which legend is this and what (really bad) reason does the QM have for asking this question?

Answer: Herbert Von Karajan, Akio Morita and Norio Ohga were all associated with the development of the CD. The run length of CDs being 74 minutes is attributed to one of these men's desire to include the entire 9th Symphony of Beethoven (which runs for 74 minutes in some renderings) in a CD. The story is almost surely false but has endured nonetheless. Karthik, Mihir, Raghu (no, not the reason I was looking for), Iam and Hirak got it. Well done.

Aside: No one got the (bad bad) reason for this question being the 400th. Keep trying, folks.

And the answer is: CD is roman for... (how awesome am I?)

8 comments:

Karthik said...

Beethoven, Norio Ogha, Akio Morita and Herbert Von Karajan. The 'legend' being the reason that CDs play 74 minutes of music to accommodate Beethovan's 9th.

Mihir said...

http://www.snopes.com/music/media/cdlength.asp

Conductor Herbert Von Karajan, Sony Chairman Akio Morita, Sony President Ohga and Ludwig van Beethoven. The urban legend is that the length of an audio CD is 74 minutes because it was required to hold Beethoven's ninth symphony, as per Morita's wife's wish.

Raghu said...

Beethoven's 9th being the inspiration for technologies such as the walkman, CD, etc.

There are 4 movements in beethoven's 9th, but their intensity makes them seem like 400 movements. :-p

Iam said...

CD length & Beethoven's 9th

Hirak said...

Morita wanted the length of the CD long enough to hear Beethoven's 9th (or 5th)

AJ said...

Dinky you should be ashamed!

mekie said...

thalaiva! kalakitta! :D

hirak said...

I would like to stand in support of Dinky for this totally ridiculous pun.

It's a testimony (Readers are welcome to lookup the Roman word origin) to his genius.