Some brand specs are pretty deceptive, others just operate by a standard that isn’t common knowledge.

Look at this discovery from TikTok user @janiayangavin:

“Okay, so I just found out something crazy. We just got this 50 inch Roku TV.”

“Okay, and what makes you actually want to measure the TV? I don’t know, but measuring the TV, it is 44 inches.”

“So then I’ll measure the box. Let’s see if the box is 50 inches. See if they got us like that. No, the box is only 48 inches. So we’re thinking, we’re like, there’s no way they can get away with this, right? Like this is – there’s no way this is real.”

“And then I was looking it up, and most TV places measured from corner to corner. So I measured from corner to corner, and it’s 50 inches.”

“So this whole time every TV that you get, it is actually from corner to corner.”

Yep! That’s a thing.

Take a look at the video:

@janiayangavin

Did anyone else know this about TVs?!? I’m shooked. Ps don’t mind my voice I have the flu

♬ original sound – CoupleTikToks

Now, of course, education is vitally important, and attempts to dismantle it are dangerous.
That said, people’s comments about this one were off the mark.

“Common knowledge” is like “common sense.” If you have to argue about it, it’s probably not that common.

Some people just didn’t know.

Rather than mock, maybe spread knowledge:

Measuring TVs by width would make sense if the screen was a perfect square, but even old “box” TVs weren’t actually square, they were typically 4:3, or in other words, a little wider than they were tall.

Most modern screens are 16:9 – but not all. A lot of laptop screens are 16:10, and ultrawide monitors like the one I’m typing on right now have all kinds of crazy ratios.

Making the standard a diagonal measurement ensures there’s no ambiguity about what you’re ordering. It’s actually the opposite of a scam; it’s a regulation.

And if you don’t know, now ya know!

If you liked that story, check out this one about a 72-year-old woman was told by her life insurance company that her policy was worthless because she’d paid for 40 years. 🙁