Why do clocks make a ticking sound?

Why do clocks make a ticking sound?
I can't stand the sound when trying to go to sleep, and am wondering why clocks make such an annoying noise.


Answers:

Meesha:  buy a digital
2007-01-04 20:00:58
Chosen Answer
bentonelectronic:  It's just what clocks do (hah)...buy a digital.
2007-01-04 20:01:37
Yahoo Services:  So you can hear the time tic away . . .tic . . .tic . . .tic
2007-01-04 20:02:21
Rachel:  Because they are secretly time bombs !! AAGGHH!!!
2007-01-04 20:03:54
Screaming Daisy:  For many, it is a soothing sound and helps them to go to sleep. Its the sound of the clock's movement...tic, toc, tic, toc, tic, toc, tic, toc.
2007-01-04 20:05:17
Dr. R:  I remember dickering inside a mechanical watch when I was a kid (oops, just dated myself). There's this little torsion spring loaded wheel in there whose rotation rapidly oscillates between clockwise and counterclockwise. Its natural oscillation frequency is constant, and the clock is synchronized to it like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. I think it's even called a torsional pendulum. Every oscillation of the wheel moves a ratchet connected to the second hand forward one notch. The purpose of a ratchet is to keep the second hand's rotation in one direction. Without it, the second had would just oscillate back and forth too. Well, you know what a ratchet sounds like (think ratchet wrenches and fishing reels). Every time the little spring loaded catch passes another gear tooth to block it from going backwards, it goes "tick".
2007-01-04 20:17:49
Ed F:  Actually there is a gear with teeth that has a dog (a term used for an arm with a hook on the end) that catches on the gear to keep it from turning until another gear turns the second hand which is connected to another mechanical device that pushes the dog up (or down) to advance the other parts of the clock movement which gets its power from a spiral spring that is wound tight and allowed to slowly unwind at a rate determined by all these gears, dogs, etc. Every time that dog lets the gear move to the next tooth, it makes a noise. TIC TOCK.
2007-01-04 20:18:03
suspendor:  It's called an escapement. There's this little wheel in there that catches its teeth on a rocking lever/pendulum kinda thing. Every time a tooth advances, you get a tick sound. Noises are annoying or comforting, depending on how you choose to perceive them. Just turn it around in your head.
2007-01-04 20:24:43
tanuj:  inside the clock,there is a magnet placed in an electromagnet made by using the cell... ....the tic tic sound is that of the movement of the magnet
2007-01-04 21:49:30