2007-02-01 02:20:03 · 6 answers · asked by alexjane17 1 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Television
Five by five means that things are good. It is lingo used by the military, radio operators, and pilots about how good/bad a radio signal is, in regards to volume and clarity, on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 being the best). So, five by five, means the best possible. So when someone asks Faith how she is? She's telling them she's 'as good as can be'.
The phrase is used in movies like Aliens and Contact.
2007-02-01 02:37:04 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the middle of the 1900's, say during WWII, the radios they were using were using vacuum tubes. The systems were not reliable. They were affected by atmospherics, storms, and individual differences in each radio. They did not have channels as such. They used a dial to try and find the frequency that they could use to talk.
Radio operators used a short hand method to verify with each other what was being received by the other operator. There was a discussion about this on "www.forpilots.com" Among the comments were these:
It is a radio term. 5 by 5 means the readability is 5 - on a scale of 1
to 5 and the signal strength is 5 on a scale of 1 to 9.
In Morse code there is an additional number for tone quality on a
scale of 1 to 9. It is called the RST report.
The first number represents frequency clarity and the second number represents frequency modulation.
This phrase applies to the Strength and Readability of a transmission with 5 being the best and 1 or 0 unusable.
In this instance, it would mean Strength-5 and Readability-5 or a perfectly understandable transmission.
So, you can see there are slight variances in how they explain it, but to answer your question, it comes from early radio operators and the problems they had trying to understand each other.
Today, it is common to use 'five by five' to mean perfect, but in the radio operator's world, 'five by nine' was perfect. But it isn't as cool sounding or easy to remember as 'five by five.'
;-D 10-4?
2007-02-01 03:11:59 · answer #2 · answered by China Jon 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
"5 by 5" was Faith's way of saying she's "square" or alright/unhurt. They never explain the origins and Buffy even asks Williow "What does that mean anyway? 5 by 5 what?" in one episode in season 4 but Willow doesn't know either.
2016-05-24 01:44:07 · answer #3 · answered by Patricia 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The origin of the phrase is unknown, but it can be related to a poker term, a piece of wood, US Army talk for a radio signal being loud and clear, and it’s also a reference to the movie Aliens. Five by five was used in the space program in the 1960’s, used by Apollo astronauts. In the transcription of the air-to-ground Apollo 11 mission are the words: “Roger, 11, You are coming in five-by-five here. Beautiful signal.”
Five By Five became the name of a Faith-centered episode in Angel’s season one.
2007-02-01 02:25:53 · answer #4 · answered by Sassysaz 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
When I used to be an airport shuttle driver and we'd ask each other about road conditions, other drivers would respond "It's Five by Five", which literally meant that traffic was going the limit (55 mph) ie. everything was cruising along just fine.
So that was how I interpretted Faith's comment, "Five by Five" meant that everything was cool, no hang-ups, just rolling along.
Probably I'm completely wrong, but you gotta come up with something.
Take care.
Casper
2007-02-02 09:45:05 · answer #5 · answered by Casper 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Don't know but I'm a real Buffy (and Angel) fan and remember Faith saying that. Have wondered also.
2007-02-01 02:34:27 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋