6 ms·
Quartz crystals oscillate like a slab of jello vibrates. It’s not moving like a pendulum or anything...rather the bulk material is expanding and contracting and
by hasmanean 8y ago
Quartz crystals oscillate like a slab of jello vibrates. It’s not moving like a pendulum or anything...rather the bulk material is expanding and contracting and energy is stored in the deformation of the crystal lattice.
- gugagore 8y agoSame with a spring-mass oscillator, right? A spring stores energy in the deformation of materials.
- hasmanean 8y agoYes. A spring reacts to force by storing energy in the strain (aka stretching) it experiences. A crystal oscillator has the additional property that when it stretches, it develops an electric field across it--and conversely, when an electric field is applied across it, it stretches. So you can make the crystal vibrate by putting a voltage across it, and this vibration is visible when you monitor the voltage. It's like striking a bell...the bell's vibration creates an audio vibration.
- gugagore 8y agoTo be honest, I'm not really sure the reason you're explaining this. I had thought you were drawing a contrast between pendulums and quartz oscillators.