The music: The music is an important part of our show. We find that it adds to the experience and meaning of the celebration. There is no set format or song that we use; we want you to be able to have the freedom to choose your song, after all it is your day!
In order to make you more aware of what exactly happening when the laser show is going on here is an explanation on CDs and CD players Lasers are also used in CD players. People tend to take the complicated way music is played for granted. It is actually very complex and since chemistry is in the air anyway let's look at it from a chemistry standpoint.
To begin with the CD,
It is a circular disk that is only five inches in diameter and 4/100 of an inch thick. However, it is much more (complicated) than just a five inch circle. Although it appears flat a CD actually has grooves in it in order to store information or in this case music. As this picture illustrates first there is the polycarbonate plastic (find the structure of each thing) which when produced is given ridges. These ridges or bumps are what is used to store the information on the CD. Next aluminum (why the metal conductor etc.. some own analysis) is put on, then an acrylic layer is put on and finally the label. Why polycarbonate, aluminum, or acrylic you may be asking yourself and if you are not asking yourself start asking! And in answer to your asking...
-Polycarbonate plastic (structure)
The term Polycarbonate describes a polymer
which is composed of many ("poly") identical units of bisphenol A
connected by carbonate-linkages in its backbone chain. Chemically, a
carbonate group is a di-ester of carbonic acid. The result is a
polymeric chain as can be seen in the scheme below:
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Polycarbonate plastic is used for a several different reasons. A very simple reason is because it is so cheap. Another reason is because it is pliable. Other reasons include: high transparency, resistance to impact, heat, fracture, easily recyclable, and good electrical insulation properties. (Association of Plastic Manufactures in Europe. "Polycarbonate a Valuable, Versatile Engineering Plastic." July 2002. Online. Available: http://www.apme.org/dashboard/business_layer/template.asp?url=http://www.apme.org/media/public_documents/20020712_151409/polycar_facts_about.htm)
-Aluminum is used as an electrical conductor(.377 x 10 to the sixth/ cm ohm). which is the transfer of enegry through a solid (the CD) or a liquid (water etc.). The explanations for using aluminum are as follows: it is also reasonable priced and it is a conductor of energy. Aluminum is found in the main group metals on the periodic table. (Barbalace, Kenneth. "Environmental Chemistry. com." 2005. Online. Available: http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/Al.html)
-Acrylic (structure)
It is also know as Propenenitrile. It has 67.90% carbon, 5.70% hydrogen, and 26.4% oxygen. (The Merck Index 9th Ed.)
Acrylic as you can see in the illustration is used to fill in the grooves of aluminum.
-Label well this is the most complicated one to explain, it is so you know what you are about to listen to!
Moving right along, the CD player,
While the CD is what holds the information, the CD player is what actually reads the information so we can hear the music. You can not have one without the other. They need each other; just like you and your fiancé. There are three pieces in the CD player that are especially important, drive motor, the laser and lens system, and the tracking mechanism.
-Like an engine for a car a drive motor for a the CD player is what makes it go. It makes the disc spin.
-The laser and lens system are what move along the bumps as the picture shows you. The laser goes through the clear polycarbonate and reflects off the aluminum. It then hits an opto-electronic device that figures out the changes in light. The bumps as you may have figured out cause a different effect then the places where the CD is flat. This change is detected by the opto-electronic sensor and interpreted into bits or the music.
http://www.cdman.com/technical/howdocdswork1.html
Although they are both given the name 'laser' they have different jobs. The CD laser is used to read information while the other is used for light entertainment.
-The tracking mechanism keeps the laser on track or in the right spot.
Not into CDs? Let's see what the MP3 has to offer
MP3s can store more music than CD. MP3s reduce the number of bytes need for each song. MP3s improve the quality of sound for a song. "The main difference between a portable CD player and an MP3 player is that the CD contains the bytes instead of memory, and on a CD the bytes are already decompressed so no decompression is needed."
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http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/mp3-player2.htm
Timing-It is not really the music that has to synchronize with the fireworks and the lasers, but the other way around. The music keeps playing during the show and the fireworks and lasers go off at specific times.
This page is not that of a real company, but is for a chemistry assignment for General Chemistry 140 at Monmouth College
