History of S.O.S

S.O.S. is a standard signal to represent that you are in trouble or you need help.

You can represent the signal S.O.S. in many ways such as by light, flag or hands. But do you know why S.O.S. What is it stands for? Why don't we use S.O.S

Actually, there is no complicate reason behind the signal.

In the old time, when Moss code was still the best telecommunication we had. Military relies on the Moss code to communicate with each other.

As we know, Moss code uses the set of dash and dot to represent the character. However, during the crisis, they don't have enough time to send the long code to say "Please help me" or "I am in a big trouble."

Therefore, the military ends up with the easiest Moss code signal set which is S.O.S. to represent the message "help" or "we are in trouble." S.O.S. can be understood by only Dash-Dot-Dash. This way they can send a help message much faster.

Since then, S.O.S. is getting popular and used in other purposes.

Learning Part

Flag = A piece of cloth used as a symbol, standard or signal of something

Stand for = Represent

Complicate = Become complex

Telecommunication = Long distance communication

Some sources from http://www.thefreedictionary.com

*Each word can have more than one meaning. The meaning here is just to favor the article

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