Describe the operations of an optical disk drive used to read data from an optical disk, such as a CD or DVD.

Data is stored one a continuous spiraled track around the optical disk, the track is made up of a continuation of lands and pits, where lands will reflect the light focused onto them, and pits will scatter the light. The change in these pits and lands indicate a 1, while an unchanged continuation represents a 0. The reading is performed by a low-powered laser which is shone at the disk, the light is reflected back and measured to determine the pits and lands of the disk. The disk spins constantly with linear velocity.

DC
Answered by Daniel C. Computing tutor

2415 Views

See similar Computing A Level tutors

Related Computing A Level answers

All answers ▸

Why would you use Assembly Language instead of a normal programming language?


Some problems are intractable. What does it mean for a problem to be described as intractable?


Describe what you understand by abstraction, and how it is relevant to software engineering.


Write pseudocode for the linear search algorithm, and then explain it’s complexity using big-O notation


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

MyTutor is part of the IXL family of brands:

© 2025 by IXL Learning