Clock crystal

For solids which melt above 100° and are stable at this temperature, drying may be carried out in a steam oven. The crystals from the Buchner funnel should then be placed on a clock glass or in an open dish. The substance may sometimes be dried in the Buchner funnel itself by utilising the device illustrated in Fig. 77, <33, 1. An ordinary Pyrex funnel is inverted over the Buchner funnel and the neck of the funnel heated by means of a broad flame (alternatively, the funnel may be heated by a closely-fltting electric heating mantle) if gentle suction is applied to the Alter flask, hot (or warm) air will pass over the crystalline solid. 

The working of the CPU is controlled by a crystal clock having a frequency, generally, of 16 to 25 MHz, depending on the type of computer. All electronic moves are controlled by the clock and operate in sequence to its ticking. 

It should be noted that, whereas ferroelectrics are necessarily piezoelectrics, the converse need not apply. The necessary condition for a crystal to be piezoelectric is that it must lack a centre of inversion symmetry. Of the 32 point groups, 20 qualify for piezoelectricity on this criterion, but for ferroelectric behaviour a further criterion is required (the possession of a single non-equivalent direction) and only 10 space groups meet this additional requirement. An example of a crystal that is piezoelectric but not ferroelectric is quartz, and ind this is a particularly important example since the use of quartz for oscillator stabilization has permitted the development of extremely accurate clocks (I in 10 ) and has also made possible the whole of modern radio and television broadcasting including mobile radio communications with aircraft and ground vehicles. 

Because of its piezoelectric properties, synthetic CC-quartz is used for frequency control in electrical oscillators and filters and in electromechanical transducers. When mechanically stressed in the correct direction, CC-quartz develops an electric polarization. The opposite is also tme an applied electric field gives rise to a mechanical distortion in the crystal. Thin sections of quartz are cut to dimensions that produce the desired resonance frequency when subjected to an alternating electric field the vibrating crystal then reacts with the driving circuit to produce an oscillation that can be narrowly controlled. Quartz is ideal for this application because it is hard, durable, readily synthesized, and can be tuned to high accuracy, for example, quartz crystal clocks can be made that are stable to one part in 109. 

The decay of °Th leads to radioisotopes of other elements, ultimately concluding with the stable isotope lead-206. Happily, some of the oldest rocks on Earth, called zircons, contain no lead when they are formed. This means that the amount of lead they accumulate over time from uranium decay reflects their age. Until the rocks crystallized, uranium atoms could move freely through the molten magma from which they formed, and decayed uranium could be replenished. Solidification of a zircon does for uranium what an organism s death does for radiocarbon it stops the influx of fresh radioactive material, and the decay clock starts ticking. Because of U s long half-life, zircons can be dated back to the Earth s earliest days. 

Crystallization and phase transition, minerals deposit and evaporate. Deposition of minerals as they crystallize is a start of the (ESR) clock.8 Their partial recrystallization gives sometimes misleadingly young ages. Phase transitions also remove the signals in some minerals.22... 

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