Special Wadsworth Constant

The special Wadsworth Constant (SWC) states that the first 30% of almost every video is a waste.

Here is the original observation of Prof. Wadsworth:

“For EVERY youtube video, I always open the video and then immediately punch the slider bar to about 30 percent. For example, in this video, it should have just started at :40. Everything before :40 was a waste. This holds true for nearly every video in the universe.”

It means that in the case of most videos the first 30% can be safely skipped without any loss of information!

New! The Wadsworth constant got official support on YouTube, just add ‘ &wadsworth=1 ‘ to the end of the URL (announcement here; demo here).

General Wadsworth Constant

While the SWC holds true for videos, the general Wadsworth Constant (GWC) can be applied to other media formats too, including music, texts, source code, news emissions, etc.

Corollary: the first 30% of every source code should be comments.

Appendix A

Here is a Python code for applying the Wadsworth Constant on a text:

def wadsworth(s): return s[int(30*len(s)/100.+.5):]

Sample input:

Perhaps this should be known as the Wadsworth Constant.

Sample output:

ld be known as the Wadsworth Constant.

Appendix B

Related links: