Final answer:
The clock portion of a clock thermostat is often powered by electricity or batteries. Ancient Chinese water clocks likely used the flow of water to measure time. Pendulum clocks can run slow in summer due to heat expansion and fast in winter due to contraction from cold.
Step-by-step explanation:
The clock portion of a clock thermostat is typically powered by electricity or batteries. In the case of some of the very first clocks invented in China, which were powered by water, the mechanism likely involved the steady flow of water that would turn a wheel or a series of gears, similar to how a watermill works. Each rotation of the wheel or movement of the gears would correspond to a fixed amount of time passing, thus allowing the clock to measure and display the time.
In response to the query about how a pendulum clock functions in different temperatures: In the summer, when most materials expand due to heat, the length of the pendulum would increase, causing it to swing slower and thereby making the clock run too slow. Conversely, in the winter, the pendulum would contract because of the cold, making it swing faster, which would result in the clock running too fast.