Why do clocks make a ticking sound?

Question

I can't stand the sound when trying to go to sleep, and am wondering why clocks make such an annoying noise.

Answer 1

It's just what clocks do (hah)...buy a digital.

Answer 2

What Makes A Clock Tick

Answer 3

Actually there is a gear with teeth that has a dog (a term used for an arm with a hook on the end) that catches on the gear to keep it from turning until another gear turns the second hand which is connected to another mechanical device that pushes the dog up (or down) to advance the other parts of the clock movement which gets its power from a spiral spring that is wound tight and allowed to slowly unwind at a rate determined by all these gears, dogs, etc. Every time that dog lets the gear move to the next tooth, it makes a noise. TIC TOCK.

Answer 4

I remember dickering inside a mechanical watch when I was a kid (oops, just dated myself). There's this little torsion spring loaded wheel in there whose rotation rapidly oscillates between clockwise and counterclockwise. Its natural oscillation frequency is constant, and the clock is synchronized to it like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. I think it's even called a torsional pendulum. Every oscillation of the wheel moves a ratchet connected to the second hand forward one notch. The purpose of a ratchet is to keep the second hand's rotation in one direction. Without it, the second had would just oscillate back and forth too. Well, you know what a ratchet sounds like (think ratchet wrenches and fishing reels). Every time the little spring loaded catch passes another gear tooth to block it from going backwards, it goes "tick".

Answer 5

not at bedtime. ok whilst springing up? I even have fixed all clocks with soundproofng felt pads and human beings who nevertheless ticked too loud have been taken tothe unload. Like chinese language water torture at cases. am reminded of Poe's "Pendulum and the Pit." It slows down and gets louder and louder until it incredibly is definitely insufferable.

Answer 6

It's called an escapement. There's this little wheel in there that catches its teeth on a rocking lever/pendulum kinda thing. Every time a tooth advances, you get a tick sound.

Noises are annoying or comforting, depending on how you choose to perceive them. Just turn it around in your head.

Answer 7

inside the clock,there is a magnet placed in an electromagnet made by using the cell...

....the tic tic sound is that of the movement of the magnet

Answer 8

For many, it is a soothing sound and helps them to go to sleep. Its the sound of the clock's movement...tic, toc, tic, toc, tic, toc, tic, toc.

Answer 9

buy a digital

Answer 10

So you can hear the time tic away . . .tic . . .tic . . .tic