Have you ever looked at the keyboard on a phone or computer and wondered why the letters are arranged the way they are? The English alphabet starts with A-B-C-D-E, so why do keyboards start with Q-W-E-R-T-Y? We asked historian and museum curator Kristen Gallerneaux to help us find the answer.
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May 2024
The QWERTY Keyboard is Purposely Bad
If you're like most folks in the West, your laptop and phone use something called the QWERTY keyboard, named for the six letters at the upper left of the board. At first glance, this layout makes no sense. It's not in alphabetical order, and most of the typing is done by the left ... Show More
42m 16s
Dec 2024
How The (English) Alphabet Became A Thing, Part Two: Each Letter Has A Story
How did the English alphabet -- a strange agglomeration of curved and straight-lined symbols -- become a thing? In the second part of this special two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the messy evolution of modern English, with a special shoutout to each letter of the cur ... Show More
48m 13s