The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Other. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Necessary'. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Functional'. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category 'Analytics'. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In other words, electricity is still all over the device, albeit at much lower power level. It is in fact, is more of a standby symbol, meaning, the deactivation merely puts the device to sleep mode or to low power state, and the power supply is not entirely cut off. This power button symbol is not quite the power, power button as you know it to be. But that’s not the end of this short but interesting story. officially gave the stamp of approval for this symbol as a universal power button. And then sometime in 1973, the International Electrotechnical Commission or I.E.C. By English Wikipedia user Firstfreddy, CC BY-SA 3.0.Īlong the way, as technology advances and single on/off button becomes ubiquitously used, a symbol that superimposed “0” and “1” was created to indicate the button is both an ‘on’ and ‘off’ button. Prior to using 0 and 1, which was sometime around WWII, power control switches are labelled ‘On’ and ‘Off’, but as time goes by, engineers began to devise a simpler labelling that would transcend language barriers and hence, the universally recognized 0 and 1 was chosen to represent ‘on’ and ‘off’, which was used on toggle switches (see below).

If you look closely, the “broken circle and vertical stroke” symbol is actually a combination of ‘0’ and ‘1’, the binary number system that represents off and on states. However, like most things in life, this humble symbol has a short but no less interesting story. When you are using electronic gadgets, did it ever occur to you how the power button symbol came about? It is safe to say we are accustomed to the familiar ‘broken circle and vertical stroke’ symbol and we’d forgive ourselves for taking it for granted.

Power on off symbol