My old 19" monitor gave up the ghost . 4:3 Screen dimensions --------------------- Old 4:3 ratio 19"Screen was 14.5" x 12" =174 The diagonal in this triangle sides 14.5 and 12 =18.8 ( near enough 19") I went to buy a new one and was politely informed that all the newer monitors were panoramic. Oh well, I thought I'll be able to see the new format movies... So I said yes, fine a 19" model please. My New dual 16:9 ratio , 19" screen is 16" x 10 " = 160 . The diagonal of this triangle sides 16 and 10 = 18.8 once more. But then I noticed that when I switched back to the old 4:3 ratio to avoid ovalation of a lot of programs... things looked a good bit smaller. And that there were two black bands on either side of the usable screen area In the 4:3 mode Measuring, with a wooden ruler I found that my effective screen area was now 10" by 13.5". Doing the (A2 +B2 )^2 = C^2 I found that C was now only 16.8 ( say 17"). Well I realized that in my normal usage mode I did not have a 19" monitor, but rather a 17" one. So I only had myself to blame thinking that the old 19" and the new 19" monitors are the same... they aren't. Not to bore with the maths***, I found that to get on a 16:9 ratio monitor when in the 4:3 mode, an old style 19"....I should have bought a 22" monitor. Bye and buyer beware Fred *** to find dimensions of the 22" monitor use relationships height 19 :22 :: 10: H H = 11.57 Base 19 :22 :: 16: B B = 18.5 The important thing here is that the height, 11.6 is almost as big as the 4:3 height of 12" for a 19" monitor.

ROFL..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comput... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widesc...

Yes itguru, it's all there in the wiki. Unfortunately I didn't know the monitor history of why the diagonal is cited ... was there. Even so for most of the people in our neck of the woods, (Madrid) the article is not in Spanish and when you put it through an automatic translator it makes your day. I remember once using automatic translation where Bill gates was mentioned. He came into the Spanish universe as Sr. Factura Verja. Try putting that back into English, It is hilarious. Bye Fred