16:9 (1.77:1) (16:9 = 42:32) is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television (EDTV) PALplus.
Generally 16:9 is pronounced "Sixteen-Nine", "Sixteen-by-Nine," or "Sixteen-to-Nine."
When the 16:9 (1.77:1) aspect ratio was proposed by Kerns H. Powers, a member of the SMPTE Working Group On High-Definition Electronic Production, nobody was creating 16:9 videos. The popular choices in 1980 were: 1.33:1 (based on television standard's ratio at the time), 1.66:1 (the European "flat" ratio), 1.85:1 (the American "flat" ratio), 2.20:1 (the ratio of 70 mm films and Panavision) and 2.35:1 (the CinemaScope ratio for anamorphic widescreen films).
Powers cut out rectangles with equal areas, shaped to match each of the popular aspect ratios. When overlapped with their center points aligned, he found that all of those aspect ratio rectangles fit within an outer rectangle with an aspect ratio of 1.77:1 and all of them also covered a smaller common inner rectangle with the same aspect ratio 1.77:1. The value found by Powers is exactly the geometric mean of the extreme aspect ratios, 4:3 (1.33:1) and 2.35:1, which is coincidentally close to 16:9 (1.77:1). Applying the same geometric mean technique to 16:9 and 4:3 yields the 14:9 aspect ratio, which is likewise used as a compromise between these ratios.
Orson Spencer Clawson (1852-1916) generally known simply as Spencer Clawson, was a politician, businessman and inventor in Salt Lake City in the general time frame of 1900.
Clawson was the son of Hiram B. Clawson and his wife Ellen Spencer Clawson. Ellen was the daughter of Orson Spencer for whom Spencer Clawson was named. Spencer Clawson was baptized a Latter-day Saint in 1860 at the age of eight.
Clawson was a half-brother of Rudger Clawson who worked for a time under Clawson in the dry goods trade.
In 1900 Clawson received a patent for a method of typing both a letter's address and the letter itself on the same sheet of paper. In 1890 Clawson was the candidate of the People's Party for mayor of Salt Lake City but he lost to George M. Scott the candidate of the Liberal Party.
Clawson married Nabbie Howe Young a daughter of Brigham Young and Clarissa Clara Decker. Spencer and Nabbie had six children.
Clawson was involved in the dry goods trade in Salt Lake City, buying most of his products from New York City where he was well known among wholesalers.