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In this activity each student will learn about the design and construction of a mechanical watch.  The student will take apart a watch movement and put it back together, with instruction from Jason Champion (instructor from the AWCI: American Watchmakers and Clockmakers Institute), with help from Jack Kurdzionak and Steve Boynton (professional watchmakers), and Prof. Gerry Sussman (an amateur watchmaker).  The entire exercise will take 4 hours.  Each session will be limited to 8 students.  Students need no prior experience, and all tools and materials will be provided by the instructors, as needed.

Enrollment is limited.  You must sign up for one of the 4-hour sessions:

Saturday, 25 January 2025, 9am-1pm
Saturday, 25 January 2025, 2:30pm-6:30pm
Sunday, 26 January 2025, 9am-1pm
Sunday, 26 January 2025, 2:30pm-6:30pm

Registration is now closed.  If you wish to be added to the waitlist for one of the sessions, please email Cindy Rosenthal (crosenth@mit.edu).

As part of this activity Professor Sussman will give a lecture on the theory of the mechanical watch and its relationship to an electronic impulse-driven oscillator.  There will be a discussion of friction (resistance) and its effect on Q and timing precision.  The lecture will explain why it is essential for the impulse to be supplied to the oscillator at the zero crossings of the angle, and why the oscillator will enter a limit cycle of a known amplitude.

The lecture is open to the MIT community.  It will be from 11:30am-12:30pm, in 34-101 on Friday, 24 January.

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