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How to Calculate the Weight of a DVD

Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) is an optical disk storage media. A typical DVD holds up to 4.7 gigabytes of information, such as movies, digital pictures or other data. Kids are also curious about physical characteristics of DVDs, so calculating the weight of the disk is an interesting scientific project in elementary school. To calculate the weight, multiply the volume by density. To find out the density of the disk, use the fact that DVDs are made of polycarbonate plastic.

Things You'll Need

Calculator

Instructions

- 1
  Divide the diameter of a DVD by 2 to calculate the radius. The DVD diameter is typically 12 centimeters: the radius is 12/2 = 6 centimeters.
- 2
  Raise the radius to square: 6 x 6 = 36 square centimeters.
- 3
  Multiply the square radius by the constant pi (3.142) to calculate the area of the disk: 36 x 3.142 = 113.112 square centimeters.
- 4
  Divide the thickness of the DVD (1.2 mm) by 10 to convert it to centimeters: 1.2 / 10 = 0.12 centimeters.
- 5
  Multiply the area of the disk by the thickness to calculate the disc volume: 113.112 square centimeters x 0.12 centimeters = 13.57 cubic centimeters.
- 6
  Multiply the density by the volume to calculate the weight of the disk. The density of polycarbonate is 1.2 g/cubic centimeter: 13.57 cubic centimeters x 1.2 g/cubic centimeter = 16.28 grams.

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