Why is a QWERTY keyboard arranged the way it is? ⌨️

Clip taken from QI Series K 'Keys' which is available to stream now on iPlayer, along with every other QI episode!

Yeah, slowing the typing down prevented jamming! The first guy was correct.

I heard that this explanation is also wrong (because the QWERTY was introduced before you had the levers that jam), and the layout was done to speed up typing when decoding morse code by arranging common letter pairs together.

Have you actually asked Mr. Asdfg Qwerty?

So, to slow typists down. Obviously not just for the sake of it, but to prevent jamming.

It’s a convenient layout for morse code. A lot of common “phrases”/abbreviations in morse code start with the letter Q.

I’ve also heard that the reason the top row is as it is, is so that you can type out “typewriter”. This should have been easier to advertise. 🤷🏻‍♂️

But E, R and T are 3 of the most common letters and they're right next to each other. Likewise A and S. Surely you would use letters like Q and Z to separate the common letters, if it really was a system to stop jamming? Instead they're placed out the way, in the corners.

Nope. That's a misconception.