The Sony minidisc by Mike Harrington

original template by Ray Lam, Fall 97

revised template by Rachel Shorey and Mike Harrington, Spring 98

Welcome to the Sony minidisc page!

Welcome to the Sony minidisc Page. This page is divided into five sections:
First Base
Finding the basic who, where, when facts. This was done for Ms. Carlson and Mr. Hollister in October 97.
Second Base
Expository Writing Paragraphs for Ms. Snyder and Mr. Carey in December 97.
Third Base
Creative Writing Paragraphs for Ms. Snyder and Mr. Carey in March 98.
Home Plate
"Guestimating" and "Analysis" Paragraphs for Ms. Lucenta and Mr. Toubman in May 98.
Left Field Center Field Right Field
Graphics from Electives: Pictures drawn for Ms. Swayze in Visual Arts, Mr. Bergen in CP1 and a movie for Ms. McElroy in Drama (too big to post on web, but we are making our own CD-ROM!
Sources

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  4. To Third Base
  5. To Home Plate
  6. To Sources

First Base

WHO: Sony Enterprises
WHERE: Tokyo Japan
WHEN: 1992

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Second Base

The Sony Mini Disc is approximately 7 cm x 7 cm x .5 cm. It looks much like a floppy disc. A plastic shield around a delicate disc on the inside. A mini disc is used in a special drive that you can purchase from Sony. The Mini disc uses a system much like that of a CDs. A red laser is dispersed from small craters on the disc, which the drive reads and it is translated into music or any other thing you might have stored on the disc. A mini disc can hold up to 140 Megabyte of information, but can hold 74 minutes worth of music- as much as a CD.

The Sony Mini disc was invented by Sony Enterprises at their research facility in Tokyo, Japan in 1992. The mini disc is not widely spread due to its high price and since it is not sold in great volume at stores. Sony has made many other inventions quite near to the mini disc- such as the DVD player, a small version of a laser disc, and the Car Discman CD Player which can be plugged into a Discman and the cassette-like connection can be inserted into the cassette player, actually playing the CD. The mini disc was researched due to demand for a more portable, digital, item to replace cassette tapes.


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Third Base

A shrill pounding is heard
from the center of the floor.
Speakers crack as the sound grows louder,
shaking the floor.
A small drive buzzes
underneath the drone of the music.
A small wheel races around
to fast to be seen.
And the crowd dances on,
unaware.

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Home Plate

My invention is the Sony Minidisc. In order to find out how many of these would fit into the Morrison Forum at Nobles, a cylindrical room resembling a Roman Amphitheatre. I first had to find out the dimensions and volume of my object. The dimensions are 3.5 in. * 3.5 in. * .5 in. Therefore, the volume would be 6.125 in3. Next, I had to convert the volume of the forum, which we had found out previously, into cubic inches.

Calculations
Volume of Forum: 23,426.2055 ft.3

Equation:ft.3 to in.3:23,426.2055 * ft. * ft. * ft. * (12 in. / 1 ft ) * (12 in./1 ft.) * (12 in./1 ft.) = 40,480,483.1 in.3

Assumptions

Final Calculations
Volume of Forum(in.)3: 40,480,483.1 in.3

Equation: Invention into Forum: 40,480,483.1 in.3 / 6.125 in.3 = 6,609,058

Result : 6,609,058 Minidiscs would fit in the Morrison Forum.

Previous estimate: 4,000,000

Difference: aprx. 2,000,000

Next, to place my inventions into the Grand Canyon, I had to, of course, find the volume of the Grand Canyon. We found out the measurements of the Canyon on the web. We then found out that the Canyon was not at the same elevation all around. The North ridge was higher than the South one. We decided to assume that the Canyon would be filled to a dome one mile high above the canyon, so the ridge heights wouldn't matter. Next I had to convert this volume into cubic inches, much like I did with the forum.

Assumptions

Calculations Volume of Grand Canyon: 407,738,000,000,000 ft. 3 ft. 3 - in.3 : 407,738,000,000,000 * ft * ft * ft * (12 in./1 ft.) * (12 in./1 ft.) * (12 in./1 ft.) = 7,045,712,300,000,000 Volume of Canyon / Volume of Minidisc: 7,045,712,300,000,000 in. 3 / 6.125 in.3 Results: 1,150,320,400,000,000 minidiscs would fit into the Grand Canyon. Original Estimate: 5,000,000,000,000,000. Difference: about 4 quadrillion too much


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  6. To Sources

Sources

Minidisc Webpage at: http://www.asertel.es/sonynews/minidisa.html
Inside the Mini Disc at: http://wsony.sosin.com.sg/record-media/minidisc/inside.html


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