How do Digital and Analog Clocks Work?

Go to for a 30-day free trial and expand your knowledge. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium membership. Have you ever wondered how a clock signal that ticks once every few nanoseconds is generated? A billion times a second clock would indeed be an impossible feat a hundred years ago. But, you’d be surprised to find that the clock inside your smartphone is rather identical to an analog wall clock that ticks through the seconds, minutes, and hours of the day. In this video, we explore an analog clock’s gear train, the quartz crystal oscillator, the feedback loops for this oscillator, and then how a gigahertz signal is produced using a phase-locked loop. Do you want to support in-depth engineering and technology education? Support us at: Website: On Facebook: Table of Contents: 00:00 - Digital Clocks vs Analog Clocks 01:13 - The $10 Wall Clock 02:05 - Gears in the Geartrain 03:40 - Crystal Oscillator and Piezoelectric Effect 05:58 - Resonance Frequency 06:51 - Circuitry Inside a Wall Clock 08:13 - Fast and Slow Clocks 09:04 - Learning With Brilliant 10:40 - A Smartphone’s Gigahertz Clock Signal 14:24 - Frequency Divider 15:04 - Thank You to Patreon & YouTube Memberships Erratum: Animation: Eikonic Design Research / Script: Teddy Tablante Software Consultant: Andrea Ciani @andrea_ciani Modeling: Prakash Kakadiya Voice Over: Phil Lee Sound Design: Sound Effects and Music Editor: Luis Huesca Supervising Sound Editor and Mixer: Luis Huesca Animation built using Blender References: Quartz Crystal Oscillators Quartz tuning Fork Resonator Teardown Teardown of a Quartz Crystal Oscillator and the Tiny IC Inside What is Piezoelectric Effect? Wikipedia contributors. “Crystal Oscillator“. “Electronic Oscillator.“ “Phase Locked Loop.“ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Visited December 21nd 2023 #Clocks #PiezoelectricEffect #Digital