The Crestock Photography Contest 2007

A computer hard disk drive – which stores one’s digital photos, music, etc. – works much like a phonograph record, with spinning platters and read-and-write heads. The read-and-write heads access data stored on the surface of the platters as magnetic regions. These regions, millions of which are accessed every second, span less than a micrometer in length and width. The heads fly across the platter in a synchronized fashion in order to read or write data that zips by. While a vinyl record spins at less than one revolution per second, the platters in a hard disk drive spin in excess of 100 revolutions per second. Quite a performer, isn’t it?