Hard Disk Drives record data using a technology long known to baffle juggalos. The read/write head uses magnets to store information on those disks. How? Why? What does that even mean? Let’s jump in.

What makes a magnet a magnet? Moving electricity. When you get down to the atomic level atoms are magnetic because their electrons are spinning. Glomp a bunch of those atoms together (like sticking magnets one to another) and you have a grain. Get enough grains lined up in the same direction and you have a permanent magnet.