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Hey Dom, what is the magnification of the Sniper Rifle scope? Let’s find out. Getting the answer should just requires some simple math.

One thing to note: the zoom-in effect of the sniper rifle scope is caused by changing the field of view. It's decreased to about 20 degrees when zooming in. This decrease is a set number and doesn’t change based on what field of view setting a player is using.

To find the level of magnification we’ll look at something and count the pixels to see how big it is zoomed and unzoomed. The field of view setting a player has players a role here. At 75, Team Fortress 2’s minimum value, everything takes more space on screen versus, 90, Team Fortress 2’s maximum value.

Anyways let’s do some pixel counting. At a field of view of 75 this square is 59 pixels high. When zoomed in its 255 pixels high. Now let’s do the same test at a field of view of 90. It’s now 45 pixels tall and again, 255 pixels high when zoomed in.

Time for some math. Here are all our values. Now to do the one piece of math learned in school that’s actually regularly helpful in daily lives: cross multiplying.

First we’ll do the minimum field of view one. Note the 1 value is there because when viewing the world unassisted with human eyes there is no magnification. Everything is seen at a 1 to 1 ratio. Now we multiply these 2 values and divide product with this value to get the answer. 4.32 is the level of magnification at a field of view of 75.

Second we’ll do the same math for when the field of view settings is maximum. Again we multiply these 2 values and then divide the product to get the quotient. 5.67 is the level of magnification at a field of view of 90.

Basically there are 2 answers as to what the sniper rifle scope’s factor of magnification is. We can average the 2 values by adding them together and dividing the sum by the count, aka the number 2. This equals 4.995. This number can be further simplified by rounding to the nearest whole number: 5. The sniper rifle scope’s zoom magnifies by a factor of 5.

5 isn’t a perfect answer to the question. Since players can have different field of view setting it varies how big objects are by default. It’s as if in real life 2 different people looked at an object and saw the object having a different size. The reference point to compare sizes changes because of field of view. Averaging the outcomes of the minimum and maximum possible values seems like a fair compromise.

Thanks for watching. Like if you enjoyed or learned something new and subscribe for more videos like this one. Also if there are any math errors, there’s a better way to get the correct answer or you have other concerns post in the comments. Au revoir.


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Official TF2 Wiki page on the sniper: http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Sniper
Official TF2 Wiki page on the sniper rifle: http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Sniper_Rifle

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