HOW IS A CD ROM MADE AND READ?
This would have to be the most asked question out there and I hope this clarifies it for you. Although there are many different types of optical disks (CD ROM’s) on the market today, they all function on the same general principle. The music, picture and/or computer data they store is in digital form. This means it is comprised of millions and millions of ons and offs or zeros and ones thus the term digital. Digital information is read from a disc by an infrared laser which projects through the clear protective plastic (Bottom side) of the disc bottom, and is reflected back to a laser reader after ricocheting off the aluminum layer (Top Side). When the laser projects through the protective layer it reads the encoded surface that is made up of pits and lands that create the ons and offs. By reading the reflected light beam, the disc drive/player decodes this information from the disc thus outputting the information through a TV, computer screen or speakers. A scratch deflects the laser
