Talk:Countdown

Music
What about in music, as in the hottest songs in x style of music?

But why "t-minus"? What is the signifigance of the "t"? I can only assume "time minus"?67.184.135.180 01:46, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Question
Does anyone know why it is 'T minus'? does the T stand for 'time', and if so, what sense does that make? like say i am doing something in 5:00 minutes. one second passes, then I am doing it in T minus 5 minutes and 59 seconds. so i am doing it one second from now? i don't get it. please explain! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.181.198.10 (talk • contribs) 09:07, 7 August 2007

No, you are doing it at T. Say the launch time is 5 minutes from now, then now is T minus 5 minutes; one second later is T minus 4 minutes 59 seconds. -- Smjg 10:15, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Got it. Thanks dude.

Meaning & History of "T" in T-Minus
We really need an authoritative explanation of the origin of the T in T-Minus:
 * Did it originally have to do with rocketry or something else?
 * Who came up with it and used it where & when?
 * Was T definitely Time or might it have been Takeoff, Terminus, Termination, Triumph, Teatime, or some foreign word or esoteric term?
 * And how do we know?

Also: Is there a Wiktionary definition of T-Minus? NO! Why not? It's a WikiWide conspiracy it is!

—Preceding "re-signed" comment added by Parsiferon (talk • contribs) 04:02, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

should this be called a count up.....if they are negative then positive? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.122.22.234 (talk) 20:32, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

I added a reference about the meaning of "T". It's "Test".38.99.42.242 (talk) 21:25, 4 February 2013 (UTC)

Military organizations use D Day, H Hour, and M minute to designate the exact time of an invasion or other military action. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Day_%28military_term%29) Given that NASA is a government agency, it makes sense that T would stand for Time, using the same logic. T-minus 10 would mean launch time in 10 seconds.

As for E, my guess is that it means Event (rather than Encounter). It's more generic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.3.59.244 (talk) 00:09, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Spelling.
Should countdown in this sense not be two words (With or without a hyphen)? I've just checked the OED which has it as one word but would count-down and count down be acceptable alternatives and if yes should it be mentioed in the opening?(Morcus (talk) 00:51, 20 May 2008 (UTC))

Controversy
The whole Controversy section was really informative and helpful. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Knile (talk • contribs) 19:58, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Deleted Trivia
I deleted this section, because i felt it was unecessary trivia. 71.198.209.193 (talk) 05:56, 5 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Additionally, countdowns are often used to count down the days before special events, such as major holidays like Chinese New Year, Christmas, and important town meetings. Sometimes personal countdowns may be used, via phone or computer applications, to count the days to one's birthday or anniversary.

Regarding The "Minus"
This is just a hypothesis of mine, but as a mathematics graduate, I've always suspected that the "T-minus" construct, or more specifically just the "minus" part of it (the "T" presumably standing for either "Test" or "Time" as indicated in the article's introduction) may have been derived from, or at least been influenced by the Heaviside step function. The Wikipedia page doesn't currently support the definition I seem to recall learning, but nonetheless I think it's just as valid a definition as any. Simply: H(t-x) = {0 where t =x}. The function acts as a mathematical representation of a switch whose product with any other function zeroes out for premature time periods, and flips on to take the value of said function once adequate time has elapsed. I hope this helps, but alas, I have so source to back this up. :( 71.236.136.184 (talk) 06:24, 14 September 2013 (UTC)

Joke?
The introduction to the article currently contains the sentence "When counting down for a holiday it is illegal to start before 10 weeks." I assume that was someone's attempt at humour? Perhaps someone could be so kind and delete that? Otto von B. (talk) 22:09, 16 July 2016 (UTC) update: somone's taken care of that issue. Thanks! Otto von B. (talk) 21:40, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

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Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:T-Minus (record producer) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 05:49, 7 July 2022 (UTC)