Julie in MN Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 We've seen pictures of the inside of a CD, with the bumps or divets. We've listened to the TTC lecture on CDs & DVDs. However, we'd love to open up a CD and look for ourselves. We had no luck today, using a knife or even breaking the CD (it broke into lots of pieces, but we couldn't get the sides under the microscope and with a magnifying glass they just looked like broken plastic). Have any of you science teachers found a way to remove the plastic coating from a CD or DVD to look at the sound bumps or divets? Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Have you tried doing a youtube.com search for that? We have discovered how to do many things that way GRIN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 Have you tried doing a youtube.com search for that? We have discovered how to do many things that way GRIN. Yes, it's amazing what you can find over there :) But I had no luck. I consider myself a pretty good internet searcher, but all I found was how to remove dust and scratches, or viruses and such :tongue_smilie: Thanks for chiming in, tho! Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 This site may be of help. They mention using a compound microscope and with the help of a bright light. They don't mention removing the coating first. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/dww/home/novhome.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 If you break a CD, the layers can be peeled apart. Just make sure it is a pressed CD, one made commercially for mass production not a CD written on a computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 This site may be of help. They mention using a compound microscope and with the help of a bright light. They don't mention removing the coating first. http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/dww/home/novhome.htm Thanks for the link. We did use a flashlight on the surface because the microscope light underneath didn't penetrate. Maybe a brighter flashlight? If you break a CD' date=' the layers can be peeled apart. Just make sure it is a pressed CD, one made commercially for mass production not a CD written on a computer.[/quote'] We did break the CD, but couldn't get the top layer off still. Maybe we'll try again, with the encouragement that you think it could work. We did save the pieces :) Thanks all, I wasn't sure I'd get any responses at all to our strange request! Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 Thanks for the link. We did use a flashlight on the surface because the microscope light underneath didn't penetrate. Maybe a brighter flashlight? We did break the CD, but couldn't get the top layer off still. Maybe we'll try again, with the encouragement that you think it could work. We did save the pieces :) Thanks all, I wasn't sure I'd get any responses at all to our strange request! Julie You're welcome. :) Maybe a high lumen LED flashlight would work? They say it has to be "intense" - if I remember correctly. It sounds like a cool experiment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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