Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
All clocks are subject to drift, causing eventual divergence unless resynchronized. In particular, the drift of crystal-based clocks used in computers requires some synchronization mechanism for any high-speed communication. Computer clock drift can be utilized to build random number generators. These can however be exploited by timing attacks.
The escapement is a mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum by giving it a small push each swing, and allows the clock's wheels to advance a fixed amount with each swing, moving the clock's hands forward. The anchor escapement was so named because one of its principal parts is shaped vaguely like a ship's anchor.
A grandfather clock (also a longcase clock, tall-case clock, grandfather's clock, hall clock or floor clock) is a tall, freestanding, weight-driven pendulum clock, with the pendulum held inside the tower or waist of the case. Clocks of this style are commonly 1.8–2.4 metres (6–8 feet) tall with an enclosed pendulum and weights, suspended by ...
Clock synchronization is a topic in computer science and engineering that aims to coordinate otherwise independent clocks. Even when initially set accurately, real clocks will differ after some amount of time due to clock drift , caused by clocks counting time at slightly different rates.
Animation of an anchor escapement, widely used in pendulum clocks. An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands.
The first use of pendulums in clocks around 1656 suddenly increased the accuracy of the verge clock from hours a day to minutes a day. Most clocks were rebuilt with their foliots replaced by pendulums, [ 34 ] [ 35 ] to the extent that it is difficult to find original verge and foliot clocks intact today.
A torsion pendulum clock, more commonly known as an anniversary clock or 400-day clock, is a mechanical clock which keeps time with a mechanism called a torsion pendulum. This is a weighted disk or wheel, often a decorative wheel with three or four chrome balls on ornate spokes, suspended by a thin wire or ribbon called a torsion spring (also ...
A pendulum clock is a clock that uses a pendulum, a swinging weight, as its timekeeping element. The advantage of a pendulum for timekeeping is that it is an approximate harmonic oscillator: It swings back and forth in a precise time interval dependent on its length, and resists swinging at other rates.