Chu 朱Genuine and possibly dumb question
Why do watch makers advertise "quartz"?
Is it the name of the movement or the actual mineral? Isn't it like one of the cheapest and most abundant minerals? Why is it worthy of advertising?
I never understood this.
D. G. Marshall@MelissaBearTrix might be able to answer this.
Melissa BearTrixInside the watch is a thin crystal of quartz, it vibrates around 32.3 somethings per second, and there is a chip that counts, and then sends a signal to the little motor to take a spin, well rotate
Hugz & xXx
sophie@MelissaBearTrix @davidtheeviloverlord @chu To add on to this, quartz has piezo electric qualities. If you strike it, it generates a charge, but if you run a charge through it it bends, completing a circuit. If you take particularly pure quartz, and shape it very precisely, you can make a highly accurate clock circuit, pretty much the most accurate you can get short of using atomic clocks. During WW2 quartz crystals were considered a military secret by the british, as they were used to tune their radios (for radar, etc). Early computers used them extensively, highest I ever saw was 33Mhz.
By writing "quartz" on the watch, they're advertising that it's pretty damn accurate. Compared to pre-quartz based time measurement.
I know modern devices use MEMS devices -- essentially a very tiny tuning fork made on a silicon chip -- for their low frequency clocks (ballpark of 15khz, the standby clock in a phone will use this), I'm not sure how the 100Mhz + signals are made
By writing "quartz" on the watch, they're advertising that it's pretty damn accurate. Compared to pre-quartz based time measurement.
I know modern devices use MEMS devices -- essentially a very tiny tuning fork made on a silicon chip -- for their low frequency clocks (ballpark of 15khz, the standby clock in a phone will use this), I'm not sure how the 100Mhz + signals are made
Sulfide_Sleuth@sophie @chu @davidtheeviloverlord @MelissaBearTrix
Interesting as well is that the same piezoelectric quality is though to attract gold during earthquakes, potentially giving rise to the super enriched quartz gold veins that are often observed in nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01514-1
Interesting as well is that the same piezoelectric quality is though to attract gold during earthquakes, potentially giving rise to the super enriched quartz gold veins that are often observed in nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01514-1
Gold nugget formation from earthquake-induced piezoelectricity in quartz - Nature Geoscience
Quartz emits a piezoelectric charge during deformation that may promote the formation of gold nuggets within veins in orogenic settings that experience earthquakes, according to a study using quartz deformation experiments and piezoelectric modelling.
GinevraCat@PhilGopon That is VERY cool!