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T in Morse Code

T is - - dah, 3 units, 180 milliseconds at 20 words per minute.

Advanced settings

Farnsworth timing: characters stay at full speed while the gaps between them grow. Set it below the speed above.

Dot / dash / letter gap / word gap -

Durations at the speed set above.

Characters without a Morse equivalent are skipped.

-

Press play in the box above - T is already in it.

How long T takes

T is 0 dots and 1 dash. With the gaps that comes to 3 units, number 3 of 26 by length.

  • 5 WPM: 720 ms
  • 13 WPM: 277 ms
  • 20 WPM: 180 ms

The arithmetic behind them is on the timing page.

What T gets confused with

3 characters sit one element away from T:

  • E . - a dot in first place instead of a dash
  • M -- - one more dash on the end
  • N -. - one more dot on the end

T in the tree

  • Carries on into: B, C, D, G, K, M, N, O, Q, X, Y and Z (12 of the 26)
  • Backwards: - = itself, a palindrome
  • Koch position: 8 of 26

The tree shows the whole shape, the trainer teaches it by ear.

Why T has this code

T makes up about 9.1 per cent of English text, which is number 2 of 26 by frequency, against number 3 by length. Close enough that the code is doing its job for this letter.

The lengths were set by counting, not by theory - the alphabet page has that story.

Worth knowing about T

In contest exchanges T is sent instead of the digit 0. A single dash against five elements - that is the whole reason cut numbers exist.

Frequently asked questions

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Alphabet
Chart
Morse tree
Koch Trainer