the circle line

December 1, 2005 5:44 PM

What is the origin of the universal power symbol? You know the one with the circle and the vertical line.

There seem to be two variations of the symbol, one with the line inside the circle and, more common, the one with the line half way inside the top of the circle. It seems to me that it's either a symbol for 1 and 0 (binary for on and off) or more exoticly, some kind of phallic sexual representation of power.

I googled many pages and came close but empty. This article seems to talk about it but it's more about the modern standardization of the symbol rather than the origin. Then there's this page that says it is a Rikki symbol but it seems made up and other pages of Rikki symbol shows something way different.

posted by sammich to technology (14 comments total)

A related thread which may help.
posted by fire&wings at 5:53 PM on December 1, 2005

I'm going to say the binary I and O
posted by mhuckaba at 5:58 PM on December 1, 2005

I always thought it was a visual pun on 1/0 and the breaking of a circuit.
posted by polyglot at 6:15 PM on December 1, 2005

That symbol is actually IEC 5009 [pdf], and it actually indicates "stand by", which is why it combines the two symbols for "on" (a line) and "off" (a circle).
posted by cmonkey at 6:27 PM on December 1, 2005

jeez, that was way too many "actually"s, I apologize.
posted by cmonkey at 6:31 PM on December 1, 2005

Note that if the line's completely enclosed by the circle, it's power on/off. If the line breaks the circle, it's standby. (This is shown in cmonkey's PDF.)
posted by kindall at 7:43 PM on December 1, 2005

IEC 5009 pdf was very interesting...
It is kinda cool logos...
Does anyone if these logos are copyrighted?
It would be cool to make a t-shirt out some of them...
Since these things are seen almost all electronic stuff I assume they are public domain??
posted by curiousleo at 8:02 PM on December 1, 2005

curiousleo: enjoy!
posted by mendel at 8:10 PM on December 1, 2005

Has anyone ever seen a real product that uses that "Save/Economy" symbol that's in the PDF?
posted by smackfu at 8:36 PM on December 1, 2005

it combines the two symbols for "on" (a line) and "off" (a circle).

Same principle as binary code, is it not? 1=on and 0=off
posted by BradNelson at 9:51 PM on December 1, 2005

Looking at my powerbook on/off button, it is with the line halfway out, so I'm thinking that Apple doesn't follow the standby symbol rule.
posted by Dag Maggot at 10:00 PM on December 1, 2005

Has anyone ever seen a real product that uses that "Save/Economy" symbol that's in the PDF?

Seen it on a copier or two, I'm pretty sure.

Looking at my powerbook on/off button, it is with the line halfway out, so I'm thinking that Apple doesn't follow the standby symbol rule.

Apple's use of the symbol is correct. The "power" button on your PowerBook is not a hard power cutoff. There is at least some circuitry being powered even when the computer is "off."
posted by kindall at 10:58 PM on December 1, 2005

The I and 0 can also be seen separately on some equipment with power switches instead of buttons.
posted by fidelity at 6:17 AM on December 2, 2005

(for example)
posted by fidelity at 6:19 AM on December 2, 2005