Please note, the following post is based purely on my own theories, not actual research. However, if someone wishes to investigate these theories further, feel free to do so and leave your findings in the comments below.
Hello everyone,
Today, I am writing to discuss my reflections on something as simple as a circle. Let me explain how this train of thought got started.
My husband and I have a friend visiting us this week, and our friend Zaire and I were playing the singing bowls I have here at my apartment. As we played, my mind began to wonder. I put mine away, and he continued to play the smaller of the two bowls, which plays a high A note or pitch as music theorists would call it. As he played, the tone spun slowly around me, and made me think upon the following topics.
The Doughnut as a Wheel
Consider a ring toss game. As you view this ring toss set, picture one of the rings as a doughnut, covered with your favorite frosting. Place the doughnut on the ring toss spindle and spin it clockwise, as fast as you can. A tornado made of frosting swirls around you as the centrifugal force draws it away from the spinning pastry. As the doughnut stops spinning, the frosting settles in the air around you. Now spin it counterclockwise and watch what happens. Does the centrifugal force draw the frosting back onto the doughnut?
Before you answer this question, keep in mind that this is not based on reality, this is just a creative theory I came up with after playing my singing bowl, so use the imagination of your inner child and play along with this theory. Leave your creative answers in the comments below. I will reply with the answers to these hypothetical questions in response to your comments, or in a corresponding blog post.
CD’s are Digital Records
Before I explain this theory, let me share with you my memories of the vinyl records, and flexible disks sent to me by the National library service for the blind and physically handicapped. When I was a child, I would spend hours listening to audio books on hard disk, or smaller vinyl records. These records were played at 8 RPMs, instead of 33 and 1/3 RPMs. As I listened to these books, I would gently touch the needle on the record player, and feel it rise up and down as the record spun and played through the player’s speaker. Once I had turned the record player off, I would spin the turntable, to feel the effect. Since that time, when I would listen to flexible disks, I would picture any kind of circles, such as potato chips, crackers, and other types of disks as records and my finger would “walk†across the disk in record fashion. As a matter of fact, I still love to hear the sound of music recorded on vinyl records.
Now for my theory that is described by the title above. Take a look at the record and the CD side by side in this photo. Are they similar in size? Would the record fit on the CD player’s spindle? Would the laser on the CD player be symbolic of the record player’s needle? Yes, these two forms of media are different as night and day, but they are similar in some ways, except for two facts: First of all, the laser reads the underside of the CD, whereas the arm of the record player rests on top of the record, and records are played on both sides versus CD’s, which are played only on one side of the disk. Second of all, the CD spins around the laser, which allows it to be read the data properly, whereas the needle has to walk across the record’s grooves as it spins to create the sound.
As we all know, each form of media spins clockwise.
Here’s a hypothetical question for you, what would happen if either a record or a CD spun counter clockwise? Would the music play backwards, or would the CD player’s laser go haywire, while trying to read the data on the the CD as it spun “the wrong way� Would the needle of the record player move backwards across the record’s groves, or would it brake, while trying to play the record as it spins in the opposite direction from which it was designed? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
The Spinning Plate
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture for this, but I do have one of these objects in the apartment where I live. Picture a dinner plate, with the underside shaped like a dome. Place the plate right side up on your countertop or our dining table. Tap the plate and see how it higgles. Does your dome shaped plate make an interesting sound? Give it a gentle spin, the direction you spin it is totally up to you. Does it simply turn, or does it spin like a record? Have you seen other objects that spin like this? What would happen if you placed the doughnut, from the first example, on this plate? Would the frosting spin off the doughnut and form a tornado, or would the doughnut stick to the plate and spin in sync with it? Please share your answers to these creative and thought-provoking questions.
In Closing
Here’s one final thought for you to ponder, dear readers: A circle has no end, but it continues into infinity. With this thought in mind, take some time to spin your own creative tale around the ring of your never-ending ideas. Write a story, poem, or essay that is based off the ideas that unfold before and unwrap themselves from the circle of your thought process.
Until next time, may God richly bless you. Happy reading, writing, and may you find your creative muse.