Essentials for building a CD Drive

by Jared Arden

Submitted : Fall 2014

On a compact disc (CD), music is coded in a pattern of tiny pits arranged in a track that spirals outward toward the rim of the disc. As the disc spins inside a CD player, the track is scanned at a constant linear speed of v = 1.25 m/s. Because the radius of the track varies as it spirals outwards, the angular speed of the disc must change as the CD is played. The goal is to find the angular acceleration that keeps the linear speed constant and the torque the motor must have to keep this angular acceleration.

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