Wafeek,Anthony,Augustine

INTRODUCTION

A quartz clock is a clock that uses an electronic oscillator that is regulated by a quartz crystal to keep time. This crystal oscillator creates a signal with very precise frequency, so that quartz clocks are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than mechanical clocks. The first quartz clock was built in 1927 by Warren Marrison and J.W. Horton at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

EXPLANATION

Quartz is a chemical compound called silicon dioxide.  Many materials can be formed into plates that will resonate but quartz is the most preferred material for time keeping because of two special qualities that it has: its piezoelectric quality and its stability in every time place and condition.

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The quartz tuning forks are made so accurate that they vibrate at 32,768 times per second plus or minus one six-hundredth.  In order to get the forks tuned to this frequency, the designers first add some deposits of gold at the ends of the tines to lower the fork’s vibration frequency.  Then a laser zaps tiny bits of the gold off until the desired frequency is reached.

MECHANISM

I. The quartz oscillator receives an electrical charge from an integrated circuit, which gets its power from the watch battery (or, in the case of a battery-less watch, the poser storage cell). The electricity makes the quartz vibrate, or oscillate, at the rate or 32,768 times per second. (Quartz crystals can be cut to vibrate at a huge range of frequencies. the bigger the piece, the slower it vibrates.)

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