How Does Exposure to Magnetism Affect Recorded Media Such as CDROMs, Videotapes, Zip Discs, Audiotapes and Floppy Disks?

Overview

Objectives/Goals I wanted to find out how magnets affected recorded media such as CDs, videotapes, Zip discs, audiotapes and floppy disks. Methods/Materials A weak magnet (1 pound pull), a medium magnet (5-8 pound pull), a strong magnet (35 pound pull), an audiocassette, VHS videotape, a CD-ROM, a Zip disc, a floppy disk, a tape recorder, a video cassette recorder, and television and computer with floppy and Zip and CD drives. Results The weak magnet had no effect on any of the media at any distance. The medium magnet only affected the cassette tape at a distance of ¼ inch and the videotape at a ¼ inch. The medium magnet had no effect on the floppy disk, zip disc and CD. The strong magnet affected the cassette tape at a distance of ½ inch and the floppy disc and the videotape at ¼ inch. The CD-ROM and the Zip disc were not affected by the strong magnet, or any magnet, at any distance. Conclusions/Discussion Electronic products are not as vulnerable to magnets as I thought. The CD-ROM is unaffected by magnetism. This was expected because it does not use magnetic recording to store information. I was wrong in my hypothesis about the Zip disc. Although it uses magnetic particles to store data, the Zip disc somehow was unaffected by even the strongest magnet when touching it. As I hypothesized, the other magnetic media can be completely erased by a magnet if it is strong enough and close enough to the media. However, they did not lose data until the magnets were very close i.e. ½ to ¼ inch away. So perhaps magnets aren't as dangerous to electronic products as people commonly think.

Competition history

• CSEF 2002 Electricity & Electronics · Entry J0701

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Physics and Astronomy projects
• CSEF Physics and Astronomy projects
• Every CSEF 2002 project