MAGNETISM AND

MAGNETIC
RECORDING

Magnetism
Any charged particle in motion will
generate magnetic field.
Electron revolves as well as spins.
Similarly nucleus also spin.
Thus an atom has magnetic fields
coming from three sources.
Net magnetic field of an atom is
resultant of all these magnetic fields
which would be determined by their
directions.

Paramagnetic
Substances
Substances in which each atom
behaves as tiny magnet i.e. net
magnetic field of each atom is non-zero
are called paramagnetic substances.
E.g. Aluminium and Copper.
They are , are attracted by an
externally appliedmagnetic field , and
form internal induced magnetic
fieldsin the direction of the applied
magnetic field.

Diamagnetic Substances
In this type, each atom has no net
magnetic field .
They create an induced magnetic
field in a direction opposite to an
externally applied magnetic field
and are therefore repelled by the
applied magnetic field.
E.g. water and antimony.

Ferromagnetic materials
They have certain regions called
domains of macroscopic size of
the order of millimeters or less.
Within each domain the
magnetic fields of all the atoms
have same direction. Thus each
domain acts as a tiny magnet.
E.g. Iron and Chromium dioxide.

Magnetization and
Demagnetization
Ferro materials when placed in
an external magnetic field the
domains from their random
positions line up parallel to the
external magnetic field thus
making the substance a huge
strong magnet.
This is called magnetization.
The reverse of this process is
demagnetization.

Domains Magnetization and

demagnetization

Magnetic Recording
Magnetic recordingis a
backbone technology of the
electronic age.
It is a fundamental way for
permanently storing information.
You just relax .Let the magnetic
fields memorize your data !
To understand magnetic
recording we will discuss here
working of audio cassettes.

Tape/Audio Cassette
The tape consists of a thin plastic base material,
and bonded to this base is a coating of
ferromagneticmaterial which is ferric oxide or
chromium dioxidepowder.
The oxide is normally mixed with a binder to
attach it to the plastic. The tape has rusty colour
due to ferric oxide(rust).
There are two spools and the long piece of tape,
two rollers and two halves of a plastic outer shell
with various holes and cutouts to hook the
cassette into the drive.
In a 90-minute cassette, the tape is443 feetlong.

Tape/Audio Cassette

The Tape Recorder

The Tape Recorder/Player

The tape recorder is very simple.
The head of recorder consists of
tiny (size of a pea)
electromagnet that applies a
magnetic flux to the oxide on the
tape.
It Is circular electromagnet with
iron core with a small gap in it,
like this:

The Tape Head

(electromagnet)

The Tape
Recorder/Player
There are the two sprockets that engage
the spools inside the cassette. These
sprockets spin one of the spools to take up
the tape during recording, playback, fast
forward and reverse.
Below the two sprockets are two heads. The
head on the left is a erase head to wipe the
tape clean of signals before recording.
The head in the center is the record and
playback head containing the two tiny
electromagnets.

The Tape
Recorder/Player

Recording
During recording, the audio signal is sent through
the coil of head to create amagnetic field .
The magnetic field is varying according to the
voltage signal which is audio converted to electric
signal by microphone .As the tape reel moves
along the head, magnetic flux magnetizes the
domains accordingly and thus a specific
magnetization that is varying magnetic field is
impinged along the length of tape .Not only the
direction of domains but also the extent to which
they are magnetized that is the strength of
magnetic field also varies along the tape.
Thus the tape remembers the magnetic field it saw
during recording.

Playback
During playback, the electromagnet
has no electric signal in it .The motion
of the tape pulls a varying magnetic
field across the gap. This creates a
varying magnetic field in the
electromagnet head and therefore a
corresponding varying signal in the by
phenomenon of mutual induction.
This signal is amplified and then sent
to thespeakers.

Sides and Channels

There are actually two of small
electromagnets for recording/ playback that
together are about as wide as one half of the
tape's width.
The two heads record/play the two channels
of a stereo program
There are two storage streams that run
parallel. These are called sides. The two sides
basically increase the storage capacity of
tape.
Half of the audio tracks are stored in one side
(Side A) and half in the other (Side B).

 You can switch the sides by

turning the tape over. This aligns
the other half of the tape with
the two electromagnets.

Magnetic Stripe Cards

The stripe on back of your credit
card is made up of iron oxide
particles in a plastic like film.
It is another kind of magnetic
storage.
But here data is stored in the
form of 0s and 1s i.e bits.
It has stored characters which
are read and rewritten every
time the card is used.

Magnetic Stripe Cards

Magnetic Stripe Cards

HOW??
The polarity of the magnetic particles in
the stripe are changed to define each bit.
Several schemes exist to determine
whether each bit is a one or a zero.
According to one standard each bit has
the same physical length of the domains
on stripe. The presence or absence of a
polarity change in the middle of the bit
(which is composed of more than one
domain)dictates whether it is a one or a
zero.

ANY SENSIBLE
QUESTIONS ?????