Pitch drop experiment - 9th drop finally drops after 13 years of watching

[SidDithers]

This is pretty cool. First, some background from wikipedia

The most famous version of the experiment was started in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, to demonstrate to students that some substances that appear to be solid are in fact very-high-viscosity fluids. Parnell poured a heated sample of pitch into a sealed funnel and allowed it to settle for three years. In 1930, the seal at the neck of the funnel was cut, allowing the pitch to start flowing. A glass dome covers the funnel and it is placed on display outside a lecture theatre.[1] Large droplets form and fall over the period of about a decade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment






Earlier this week, the ninth drop "fell" and touched the residue under the funnel from previous drops. No previous drops had been witnessed, but this one finally was - because multiple webcams are now set up around the experiment, letting thousands of viewers check in any time they want.

Big News in World's Longest Experiment
DROP OF PITCH FALLS AFTER 13 YEARS OF WAITING

In what is surely one of the most gripping experiments currently underway, scientists in Australia have been watching a beaker containing pitch, a tar derivative, since 1927. The researchers' goal in the planet's longest-running experiment—which holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records—is to show that solids can flow like liquids. And flow this solid did, with the ninth drop finally occurring at the University of Queensland over the weekend, Phys.org reports. As New Scientist reports, drop No. 9 hasn't actually detached from the pitch above it, but has collided with the eighth drop on the beaker's bottom.

Between 1930 and 1988, one drop fell an average of every eight years, says Professor Andrew White. But "the 2000 (eighth) and 2014 (ninth) drop each took about 13 years to fall, and each collided into the decades-old pile of drops in the beaker before it could break away from the funnel," White says, explaining that the eighth drop didn't actually break free until this year. This marks the first time anyone's actually seen a drop occur, thanks to three webcams that are trained on the experiment and streaming a live feed. The scientist who spent 52 years hoping to see one never managed to do so, though there were near misses, including a very-ill-timed webcam outage in 2000. He died in August. (A similar experiment underway in Dublin since 1944 finally caught a drop on camera last year.)

http://www.newser.com/story/185539/big-news-in-worlds-longest-experiment.html

Sid

[hobbit709]

1. Glass flows too but at a much slower rate.

[seveneyes]

8. Yes. Check the windows in very old houses

You can sometimes see the glass is thicker at the bottom where it has settled due to gravity.

[FarCenter]

11. The glass in windows has a viscosity so high that it doesn't flow measurably in historic times

Handmade window glass is of uneven thickness, and installers usually mounted the heaviest side down.

Making Window Glass by Hand: Crown & Cylinder Glass
http://www.cmog.org/article/making-window-glass-hand-crown-cylinder-glass

Does Glass Flow?
http://www.cmog.org/article/does-glass-flow

[needledriver]

15. Glass does not flow at room temperature.

According to the second article you linked to, glass is around a billion times less viscous than lead at room temperature, which is to say, like lead, glass is SOLID at room temperature.

[cthulu2016]

22. ^^^ This. It's a popular misconception.

[Babel_17]

23. Slow glass

http://hell.pl/szymon/Baen/The%20best%20of%20Jim%20Baens%20Universe/Vol%201%20Num%201/1932093001__17.htm

That's a link to a famous science fiction story. It's a good example of the sense of wonder of that time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_light

I post it here because I too used to enjoy the idea of glass in windows slowly flowing.

[greytdemocrat]

2. I'm not sure exactly why...

But that is cool.

[edhopper]

3. because science

It is science showing something that might run counter to casual observation. In this day and age, when many people deny science because their gut or beliefs says otherwise, this simple experiment is a good demonstration of how science works.

[PCIntern]

5. No no no...

it's the tiny angels which inhabit the glass and periodically see fit, through God's Plan, to allow a drop in order to test our Faith.

[66 dmhlt]

4. What's the 9-volt battery doing to the left of the cloche?

[PCIntern]

6. Perhaps for relative size perspective...

or perhaps God placed it in the photograph...again, to test our Faith.

[trusty elf]

7. Maybe it's to show the scale?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

12. There's always a battery when there's a pitch and a catch.

[cyberswede]

13. LOL

[rrneck]

18. Ooh, that's a good one.

[Thor_MN]

17. You should have seen the batteries they had to use when the experiment was started!!

Huge, enormous. Many a hernia erupted when they had to be changed. And previous attempts had to be hand cranked.

[Chico Man]

9. Brought to you by Duracell

The SpaceX of pitch drop experiments.

[Brickbat]

10. K&R for science

Never heard of this experiment -- thanks for posting.

[paleotn]

14. Neat experiment.....

...another example of how science cuts through human perspective and perception to reveal reality. By perspective I mean compared to many natural processes our lifetimes are incredibly short, clouding how we see reality. Our perceptions are littered with the spandrels of tens of millions of years of evolution. Pattern seeking being one of them. We see patterns all over the place. Many that don't really exist, but we swear the do. On the plains of East Africa, the occasional false positive had little implications, while a single false negative could turn you into dinner for a leopard. Ironic that such a useful skill (perceiving patterns) can cause so much damn trouble now that we don't have to worry about leopards, lions and hyenas eating us.

[calimary]

16. Maybe not leopards or lions, but hyenas yes.

In this day and age, they're called republi-CONS. LOL (- sort of.)

Cool experiment, though.

[treestar]

19. Totally cool

Such a long term thing, too.

[ThoughtCriminal]

20. Wait. I went into the kitchen for a snack.

Did I miss it? Ahhhhh!!!!!

[CFLDem]

21. zzzz