14:9

Okay kiddo, have you ever watched a movie and noticed that it sometimes looks like there are black bars at the top and bottom of the screen? That's because movies are often made using a different shape than a regular TV.

The regular shape that most TVs have is called 4:3. That means that the picture is 4 units wide and 3 units tall, like a rectangle. But sometimes movies are made in a different shape called 16:9. This shape is a bit wider than 4:3 and looks more like a rectangle that's been stretched out.

Now, some TV shows and streaming services want to show these movies on their service without the black bars at the top and bottom. So what they do is instead of showing the whole 16:9 rectangle, they zoom in a little bit and only show 14 units of the width while keeping the same 9 units of the height. That's why it's called 14:9 - because it's a smaller part of the 16:9 rectangle.

So the next time you're watching a movie and it looks like it's missing some of the picture, you'll know that it's because it was made in a different shape and the TV is only showing part of it to fit the screen. Cool, huh?