How does a CD play?

Answer by  Binome (1975)

There are microscopic dots on the shiny part of the CD. As it spins, a laser shines and bounces back when there is no dot, and doesn't bounce when there is one. This is read as a stream of binary code that your computer or CD player converts into sound.

Answer by  Miraculous (12)

A compact disc is an optical media format. Very tiny pits are etched into the surface of the disc to represent data. They are read by hitting the surface of the CD with a laser and a detector, very much like a sophisticated record.

Answer by  technogeek (6640)

There is a laser inside the CD player the reads the information that is embedded onto the disc and that is how the disc works.

Answer by  Amber40 (24961)

A laser record data in the form of music by burning microscopic pits in the cd medium that are read by another laser when played.

Answer by  John42 (194)

there is a laser inside the cd player that reads the info on the cd and turns it into music so you can hear it over the speakers this is the most common way

Answer by  Keepthebeat (12)

A CD players by a laser scanning the information that is encoded into the disc. Faster speed in a drive does not mean better quality sound either. In fact some faster more modern drives have been known to explode CD's of older quality inside of them. The Data for the CD is actually coded on the top of the disc.