The Longest and Most Unseen Experiment in Physics History
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Chapter 1: The Pitch Drop Experiment
In the realm of experimental physics, few endeavors have been as drawn out and perplexing as the pitch drop experiment. Initiated in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland, this experiment aimed to illustrate the slow flow of pitch, a tar-like substance that appears solid but behaves like a viscous liquid.
To demonstrate this, Parnell filled a funnel with heated pitch and allowed it to solidify for three years before opening the tap. What followed was an agonizing wait for the first drop to fall, which finally occurred after eight and a half years—but not a soul was present to witness it.
The second drop descended in 1947, just a year before Parnell's passing, but once again, he missed the moment.
Section 1.1: The Legacy of John Mainstone
Following Parnell's death, Professor John Mainstone took charge of the experiment, which continued to yield drops roughly once a decade without anyone ever witnessing the phenomenon firsthand. By the late 20th century, a webcam was installed to capture the drops in real-time, but irony struck again when a technical glitch prevented the camera from recording the drop in November 2000.
In April 2014, the last drop finally fell, but due to external disturbances and the new custodian's inattention, it too went unseen.
Chapter 2: A Parallel Experiment
Interestingly, a similar experiment is ongoing at Trinity College in Wales, where the fall of bitumen was successfully documented in 2013. For their dedication, both John Mainstone and Thomas Parnell were awarded the Schnobel Prize in 2005, a nod to their significant contribution to the understanding of pitch viscosity—approximately 200,000 times thicker than honey.
Calculations indicate that the funnel still contains enough pitch to last for another century, and the experiment continues, shrouded in the mystery of unseen drops. This makes it one of the most prolonged and least successful experiments in scientific history.
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