Magnifying Visors

Is it possible to see binary code on tapes with a magnifying glass or telescope?

A co-work that worked with computers in the 70's said when working with the first tapes he could see the actual 1's and 0's on a tape with a magnifying glass. Is this possible?

Public Comments

1. They are magnetic charges, so no.
2. Wasnt there in the 70s but I dont remember ever seeing any 1s and zero's with my magnyfying glass during the tape deck era.
3. NO! NO! NO! What is recorded on the tape are not visual 1s and 0s. They are magnetic charges. If it is a 1, there will be a magnetic charge recorded on tape. If it is a 0, there will be no magnetic charge recorded on the tape.
4. That is Very Very Highly Unlikely A Binary Code is a computer code that expresses numbers, letters, and symbols in base-2 notation, using only the digits 0 and 1 If you put a Magnifying Glass on a Tape you wouldnt be able to see the Magnetic code. Binary code is Not written on the tape but its imprinted in a Magnetic order that only the tape player could read. Try taking your computers Hard drive and looking for the 0 and 1. Its Impossible The software that created the tape edited the magnetic Field on the tape, thus encoding it with Binary Numbers
5. Not tape, but they used to use punch-cards where the computer would just shine a light and if it went through (i.e. there was a hole) that was 1 and if it didn't go through (no hole) it was a 0. Once they moved to magnetic media (tapes, hard drives) there is no way to "see" the data with the naked eye, no matter what kind of magnification you use.
6. When I was a painter we used to send the boy off to the stores to get a tin of black and white spotted paint. LOL