The world of mathematics.
Place of compact discs.
You know this. You could spend a lot of time in music stores looking for cassettes and compact discs. But have you ever wondered how compact discs are made or how much it costs to make them? We decided to investigate it.
Most of us only know the price of the disc and its brilliant presentation. But what about the disc company? How is the production and distribution costs affecting the price you pay?
This factory belongs to the Semi company in Swindon, England. It produces millions of compact discs a year. And now it is planning to release 24,000 copies of a disc from the group called EMEB.
The master tape of the recording is first received in the production office. All the information about the groups that work with the disc company is stored here. The recording studio has written the technical information of the tape on the cover and this information is transmitted to the computer.
The tape is then transferred to the production area to make a high quality master disc. To carry out this process, it is indispensable to have a completely clean environment, free of dust. In addition, the tape must be transferred through an air chamber.
As any contamination is desired, technicians must use free-of-dust clothing.
The master disc is made of glass and is covered with a very thin, photo-sensitive layer, very similar to the one used in a photographic camera.
As the disc rotates, a laser beam with variable intensity records the music of the tape on the master disc.
Once all the music has been recorded, the photo-sensitive layer is covered leaving a negative image.
The master disc never touches.
A high-pressure molding machine compresses the disc.
The transparent disc is covered with a thin layer of aluminum.
Then lacquer is added to protect the aluminum cover.
The lacquer dries under the ultraviolet light effect.
Meanwhile, a computer checks that there is no failure.
At the end of this, the disc is taken to the printing department,
where the data of the group is displayed on the other side of the disc.
Once packed, the disc is sent to the stores and radio stations.
The disc is then produced and sold at a cost of $12.
The cost of the production of the first 1000 discs will cost the company $12,000.
Cost. How much will it cost to produce and distribute 2000, 3000 or any number of discs?
To produce 2000 discs, manufacturing and distribution costs increase,
but it is no longer spent on the master disc or in the recording studio.
Taking into account this, 2000 discs will cost $128,000 and 3000 will cost $140,000.
We can increase the number of discs produced and the important thing is that the initial costs remain fixed.
Although the use of tables or columns is an adequate method to show the costs,
these do not allow the company to calculate the expenses of the compact discs if the desired number does not appear on the table.
Showing information. How else can you show information?
For the company, it is more convenient to have information in graphs.
We know that 2000 discs will cost $128,000.
The graph needs to show a relationship between these two lines.
By each pair of numbers, we can locate a point in the graph,
but do you think that a graph represented in this way is useful to the disc company?
In principle, we can see that the points go up as more discs are produced,
but suppose they want to know the cost of 7200 compact discs.
7200 is not on our table of values, so there is no point in the graph.
The graph. How could you present the graph to show this information?
We could calculate the cost of producing 1000 discs, but it is easier to draw a line between all points.
Now the company can easily see the cost of manufacturing any number of compact discs.
But regarding money management, we have not finished.
The disc company has spent large sums of money only for the production of discs.
Now it has to recover that cost at the price of the disc.
The company expects to be able to sell each disc for $20, so the sales graph will be different.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
With this price, how many compact discs does the company need to sell to cover its expenses?
And is there another way to find the answer?
Hello, this is the radio night session. Welcome, we have a great show tonight.
Today we will talk live with Dream Warriors and MC Hammer.
The telephone line is already open and our list of premieres.
And to start, we have the new disc of EMF called I Believe.
Thank you.