How are data stored on magnetic stripe? Bank Cards|Hotel Key Cards
Y ou must have seen a magnetic black coloured stripe on the back of a hotel key card or a bank card. But, do you know that some data are stored in these stripes and how data is written on these magnetic stripes? The concept is similar to that which was used in audio cassettes or in videotapes where these stripes were divided into many sections and such stripe is made up of a material whose magnetic properties can be changed. The magnetic stripe on the back of a badge is composed of iron-based magnetic particles encased in plastic-like tape. Each magnetic particle in the stripe is a tiny bar magnet about 20-millionths of an inch long. When all the bar magnets are polarized in the same direction, the magnetic stripe is blank. Information is written on the stripe by magnetizing the tiny bars in either a north or south pole direction with a special electromagnetic writer which is basically a solenoid, called an encoder. The writing process, called ...

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