6/4/2002: The pitch-drop experiment

[Undertoad]

It doesn't look like much, but what you have there is a scientific experiment that has been in progress since 1927.

Pitch, a derivative of tar, is very much like a solid, but a Queensland scientist wanted to prove that it has "fluidic" properties. In other words, that it flows like water. It just has an extremely high viscosity.

So, in 1927, he heated some pitch and put it into a glass funnel. He let the pitch "settle" for three years, and then in 1930 he cut the bottom off the funnel. And then the pitch began to drip.

In December 1938, the first drop fell.
February 1947, the second.
April 1954, the third.
May 1962, the fourth.
August 1970, the fifth.
April 1979, the sixth.
July 1988, the seventh.

And recently, the eighth drop fell. Amazingly, nobody has ever seen a drop actually fall. They had a webcam on it for the last drop, but there was a glitch during the actual drop...!

The full story:

http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/pitchdrop/pitchdrop.shtml