Fun Physics Fact Friday: Quartz watches are driven by an actual quartz crystal. This is thanks to a phenomenon called the Piezoelectric effect: where if mechanical stress is applied to a crystal, a small voltage is created on the surface. Conversely, if a voltage is applied, the crystal will undergo small changes or oscillations that can be measured and interpreted by the circuitry within the watch. The oscillations will remain constant as long as the same voltage is supplied from the battery and so the watch is designed interpret either electronically (for digital) or mechanically (for analog) into seconds that are presented on your watch face.
Crystals are so good at conserving the mechanical energy applied to them that a tuning fork made of pure crystal can ring for more than several minutes. This is because of how the stress that is initially applied is turned into electrical potential (voltage) and then converted back into mechanical energy, resulting in the "ringing" of a crystal tuning fork.
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