Yeah, it’s a 7" diameter vinyl disk with a hole in the middle. Smaller diameter than an LP (12") but the hole was bigger. You needed an adapter to play them. From wikipedia, size and speed choices were compromises to do with multiple factors like existing standards for the way they cut the grooves for master discs, the size of player needles, and the typical length of popular songs.
I’m not sure I ever bought even one pre-recorded cassette. Lots of LPs and CDs. I digitized and donated most of them. Now wish I had kept them but there’s only so much room for old junk.
This thread reminds me of how different listening to music is today compared to yesteryear.
Grew up listening to the Beatles, Lennon, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream, the Stones, Fleetwood Mac et al through the vinyl and speakers in my parents’ living room.
Full albums. The soundtrack of my childhood.
Today, can’t even remember the last time I listened to music that wasn’t piped through a set of headphones.
Anyone else remember Pocket Rockers? I thought there was nothing cooler than my collection which IIRC consisted exclusively of Debbie Gibson, Belinda Carlisle, and The Bangles
I believe the number is rpm. The linear distance traveled has a lot due to the diameter of the record. 78s are fairly similar in size to 33s, that’s why a 33 is an “LP” or long-playing. More grooves of information.
45s were much smaller hence a few minute sone would tie up a whole side.
I think we may be saying the same thing. 33s are 12in, 45s are 7in. and spin at the same speed. 78s are 10in and spin faster. Or I have a fundamental misunderstanding, which since I just realized that 33s and 45s spin at the same speed is entirely possible.
RPM is number of revolutions per minute. It’s a unit of angular speed. A 45 rpm record spins about one and a third times for every one time a 33 rpm record goes around.
The linear speed at which the stylus (needle) is moving through the groove is proportion to the angular speed. If v= linear speed, w= angular speed, and r is the distance from the center of the record to the point on the record where the stylus is, then v=r*w. The angular speed w is constant, but v is not.
For the linear speed v of the stylus to be the same at 33 rpm as at 45 rpm, the stylus has to be about a third further out from the center on the 33 rpm record as on the 45.
RPM = Revolutions per minute. So yeah, 45’s spin faster than 33’s and 78’s spin fastest of all. Record players had speed controls to adjust to whatever kind of record you were playing. As a sometimes bored kid, I enjoyed playing some of my 45’s at 78. My pony is going at 33rpm.
Hey did we ever get a UPers posting their losses thread? Because some schlub is having trouble with rpms.
I was thinking that “oh, 33s and 45s go at the same speed because the difference in diameter is made up by rpms.”. But the speed is rpm. Dummy. (I was a little worried that since dementia runs on my dad’s side and Alzheimer’s on my mom’s side, that I should be worried, but I think this is just garden variety stupidity.)
