Also what are quartz?
In: Engineering
It’s a mineral, basically a rock. When you send some electricity through it it vibrates. We can time our watches based on the frequency at which it vibrates.
Quartz is a type of mineral. When electricity passes through it, it vibrates at a predictable frequency and those vibrations can be measured in a way that you can get precision timing from it. It vibrates 32,768 times per second.
Quartz vibrates bzzzzz at a consistent rate when electricity is applied. We know how many bzzzzz per second and then use that calculation for maintaining time on a quartz watch.
Quartz is a type of crystal with a special property: if you apply a voltage to it, it wiggles a little, and as with many things to do with electricity this also works the other way around. We can make tiny little tuning forks out of quartz that vibrate at a known frequency, apply a little voltage, and then as it wiggles we can measure the changes in voltage coming off it at regular intervals.
If you take apart a quartz clock, you can locate the crystal within a tiny metal cylinder. It will mention the rate (frequency) of vibration.
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