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   Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:49:01 JST Alex Gleason
   Wrong. Quartz crystals vibrate at a frequency of exactly 32,768 Hz when SQUEEZED and this allows us to TELL TIME. It's science but it's still fucking magic. 💎
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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:51:09 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @alex I'm pretty sure that's when a electrical current is applied rather than physical squeezing and most quartz crystals have terrible clock drift (since they don't vibrate at exactly 32,768 Hz).
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     feld (feld@bikeshed.party)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:53:26 JST feld

     in reply to
     except when the quartz crystal has temperature fluctuations which affects the frequency and leads to clock drift and then we have to invent NTP which literally is magic
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     Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:54:42 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to

     • 翠星石
     @Suiseiseki >Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress.
     
     >mechanical stress
     
     >squeezed
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     Rusty Crab (rustycrab@clubcyberia.co)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:55:20 JST Rusty Crab

     in reply to
     @alex you say hz but how do we know what a second is in the first place without the crystal? Seems like a leap of faith to me :smugtewi:
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     DotardTed 🇺🇸 :verified: (dotardted@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:55:35 JST DotardTed 🇺🇸 :verified:

     in reply to

     @alex

     I was reading that they are close to creating drone-based atomic clocks that can rely on universal inertial guidance for all their navigation. Eliminating all GPS requirements (and jamming).

     I agree, it is magic! And a whole lot of code!
     https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/02/01/darpa-new-atomic-clock/

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     ProudKulak (proudkulak@nicecrew.digital)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 23:55:55 JST ProudKulak

     in reply to
     The even more magic part is that they spark when you hit them and that's how all the kachunk lighters work like in propane grills
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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:01:25 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @alex >A crystal oscillator relies on the slight change in shape of a quartz crystal under an electric field, a property known as inverse piezoelectricity. A voltage applied to the electrodes on the crystal causes it to change shape; when the voltage is removed, the crystal generates a small voltage as it elastically returns to its original shape.
     
     As far as I'm aware, quartz oscillators work off inverse piezoelectricity, so an electric charge is applied, rather than mechanical stress.
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     Alex Gleason (alex@gleasonator.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:03:06 JST Alex Gleason

     in reply to

     • 翠星石
     @Suiseiseki The crystal is already pre-squeezed by the manufacturer 😂
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     teknomunk (teknomunk@apogee.polaris-1.work)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:03:31 JST teknomunk

     in reply to
     @alex
     
     The frequency that quartz crystals oscillate at is dependent on the thickness of the crystal and the crystal orientation.
     
     Here is a WWII documentary on how these crystal oscillators were manufactured for radio applications: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHenisSTUQY
     
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     feld (feld@bikeshed.party)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:05:29 JST feld

     in reply to

     • 翠星石
     you really need to keep the temperature stable. a quartz crystal next to hot components like a CPU is retarded, but that's the world we live in.
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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:11:22 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @alex >already pre-squeezed.
     I'm not too sure, but as far as I can tell, the crystals are typically just grown without adding a pre-stress, although adding it is sometimes done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator?useskin=monobook#Production
     
     Thinking about it, usually you only want the squeezing to happen when an electric charge is applied, so the crystal returns to the original shape when the electric charge is removed.
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     Jezza™@threads.com (Official) (jeremiah@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 00:48:09 JST Jezza™@threads.com (Official)

     in reply to

     @alex fucking magnets, how do they work? Magic.

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     Dr. Chris ⚔️ (Sir/Sir) (drchris@noagendasocial.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 01:18:59 JST Dr. Chris ⚔️ (Sir/Sir)

     in reply to

     @alex

     Wireless is still magic to me.

     I hit send on my phone, something is transmitted somehow through the air, through a vast network of cables and computers and ends up in my email inbox in a matter of milliseconds.

     How?

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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Thursday, 03-Aug-2023 01:18:59 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Dr. Chris ⚔️ (Sir/Sir)
     @DrChris >I hit send on my phone
     Unfortunately it's not yours, the tracking devices owns you instead.
     
     It's all encapsulation.
     
     -Email server
     --internet (fibre optic cables with routers bridging them that pretty much send IP packets to the correct destination via BGP arranged routing)
     --upstream link (hopefully fibre, but half the time it's throttled 100BASE-TX)
     --Wi-Fi AP
     ---~2.4GHz or ~5GHz radio waves
     ----802.11{y,n,ac}
     -----IP
     ------TLS
     -------TCP
     --------STMP
     --------Email