Factoons. Brainwave. 13th June

Ever wondered why the process of recording on a disc is referred to as burning? The information on a disc is recorded in digital form, represented by a series of 1s and 0s. A disc has a thin reflective metal sheet with a translucent dye layered on top. The CD burner is equipped with a powerful 'write laser' that burns the translucent dye to make it opaque. The parts which are opaque block the light from reflecting off the metal sheet, giving it a digital value of 0, and the parts which are left translucent get a value of 1. This is how data is burnt on a CD!