Kinematics of the Compact Disc/Digital Audio system
John P. McKelvey · American Journal of Physics · 1985
The kinematics of the recently introduced Compact Disc/Digital Audio system is investigated. Experimentally, it is demonstrated that the nominally constant linear velocity of scanning actually varies by as much as 15% during playback. This variation gives rise to an easily observable departure from the conventional kinematics of tape recording, wherein this velocity is held strictly constant. A modified scheme of kinematics is introduced, which describes all observable aspects of the kinematic behavior of the CD system in close accord with experimental results. The measurements and calculations exhibit certain interesting and important features of rotational kinematics, illuminate some little-known aspects of the behavior of the CD system, and form the basis of an informative and up-to-date experiment in intermediate mechanics.