How does a clock tick every second?

Question

As in what kind of device goes in the back of it to make it tick at exactly every second... and how do we know that's a second?

Answer 1

what do u exactly mean??..

Answer 2

How a clock tick really depends on what type of clock it is. Mechanical clocks has gears and springs. So typically, the spring are wound up and then it releases this energy through the gears. The different gears has different sizes. This allowed the the spring to unwound slowly. The ticking of the clock is the gears within the clock rotating, and each tick you heard is suppose to be match to the duration of a single second of time. However, as you know, as the spring become more unwounded, the energy of the spring is released so much that the ticking of the clock slows; therefore the time keeping become inaccurate.

Other types of clocks like quartz clocks or digital clocks are more accurate, but they all can never measure time perfectly. Atomic clocks are the most accurate clocks that we have, but even they get out of sync ever so slightly over very long periods of time.

So to answer your question, currently the duration of a second is calibrated to the decay half-life of some radioactive element. This is how atomic clocks work. But the clocks themselves can never measure time perfectly no matter what mechanism is used.

What's even more bizzare is that no matter how accurate a clock can be made, time is not absolute. Time flows at different rate depending on the speed of the moving object. So if someone were to travel on a plane that flew around the world and he carried an atomic clock with him, when he lands and he compares his atomic clock with another atomic clock on the ground, he'll find that his atomic clock is slower than the atomic clock on the ground. Now this has nothing to do with whether the clock themselves are working properly or not. Time is really not flowing at the same pace at everyone. The faster you go, the slower time flows.

This is Einstein's Theory of Special Relativty.

Answer 3

The quartz crystal counts cycles in accordance with the current it receives. In America, the crystal works in sync with the 110V/ 60Hz AC current so whenever a cycle in the frequency of your electricity flows through your clock, the second hand ticks.

Answer 4

Get a life

Answer 5

the metal gears locking together...