How do cassette tapes work?

Question

I’ve been thinking back to the way people used to store their music – on cassette tapes for example. How exactly did those things work? You could spool them out and make a mess and once they were tidied up they’d still work fine. Were they magic media devices?

Answer 1

The tape is magnetic. As Lauren said, but maybe in more laymans terms, live sound (audio) is first recorded, then converted into an electrical audio signal. The tape records these signals as magnetic information, this is happening on a very small scale relative to a human. The tape player will read that information and play that audio that is there.

Here is an article that explains, but if you know no physics or basic audio principles this can be a hard concept to get: https://reverb.com/news/how-does-magnetic-tape-work-the-basics

Records are the best example of audio at work. If you play a record player with no speakers attached, you can hear the song playing quietly at the point of the needle. If you have access to this try it, I'm sure you can also look it up on youtube.

Answer 2

When sounds are recorded onto a cassette tape, the process involves the impression of an electromagnetic signal onto the ferric oxide coating on the plastic tape. Though the coating is permanently magnetic, the signal itself is not and can be overwritten with each new recording