The latest “burning” terminology involves writing data to an optical disc such as a CD or a DVD. In fact, if you aren’t at least burning your own “party mix” music CDs, you’re not keeping up with your hip neighbors. The top of the CD consists of the label layer. Optical discs usually consist of two protective layers that are normally made of acrylic or polycarbonate plastic. The reflective layer, usually consisting of gold or a silver-colored alloy, is extremely thin, about 100 nm. The second, protective layer on the bottom of the CD is made of fairly thick plastic, meaning the actual data is stored much closer to the top of the disc than the bottom. Because this layer is the thickest, minor scratches on the bottom of the optical disc don’t affect the reading of the data. Deep scratches on the top of the disc could damage the reflective layer, though, leaving the disc unusable.
A single-sided, single-layer DVD is similar to a CD, but it uses much thinner protective layers. A DVD actually is constructed like two discs (each almost 0.6 mm thick) sandwiched together by an extremely thin adhesive layer. In a crosscut of a single-sided, single-layer DVD, you’d see a protective layer, the adhesive layer, a thin protective layer, the reflective layer, and a final protective layer.
Burning up process of CDs and DVDs is a complicated one. Fortunately, as long as you have the correct type of media to match your drive and the correct type of software, burning your own optical discs is easy. Just put in the disc, click the correct buttons in your software, select the data to burn, and sit back.