The pitch drop experiment is a long-term experiment which measures the flow of a piece of pitch over many years. 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. Large droplets form and fall over the period of about a decade. The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, and now, 85 years later, the ninth drop is only just forming, as you can see in the picture above which was taken from a live webcam.
(thanks dr awkward)
1 comment(s):
"The eighth drop fell on 28 November 2000, and now, 85 years later, the ninth drop is only just forming,"
Is it really 2085 already?
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