who published each standard, when, what it does to the sound, and how many bits per second it allows
Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.
Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.
Sources: IEC 60908 · ISO/IEC 11172-3 · ISO/IEC 13818-7 · the Vorbis I specification · RFC 6716 · RFC 9639 · ATSC A/52.
The number 44 100 is neither round nor derived from hearing. Early digital audio travelled to the pressing plant on videotape: a converter turned the samples into something shaped like a television signal and laid three samples per channel into every line of the frame. The world had two television systems, and the format had to fit both.
It fitted both, and with a single number. In the 525-line system 245 lines remained usable at 60 fields per second: 3 × 245 × 60 = 44 100. In the 625-line system, 294 usable lines at 50 fields: 3 × 294 × 50 = 44 100. The same result out of two incompatible sets.
The coincidence is not quite perfect: colour broadcasting on 525 lines runs at 59.94 fields rather than 60, and the same arrangement yields 44 056 Hz there. The compact disc kept 44 100 — and every figure on this sheet is still counted from it.
Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 7 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.
