World’s longest-running experiment now with webcam

The Pitch Drop Experiment

The experiment started in 1927 and is still ongoing

In 1927, a University of Queensland professor named Thomas Parnell wanted to demonstrate the fluidity of extremely viscous substances. To that end, he melted pitch — which is a form of tar — and poured it into a closed funnel, letting it dry for three years. Now, pitch is hard when dry and will even shatter when when struck. However, after the funnel end was cut, the pitch began to drip with agonizing slowness. And 85 years later, it’s still going.

In the 80 odd years the pitch has been dripping no one has ever seen a drip fall
So they have set up a webcam for you to monitor
I suppose that you will need to be bored out of your skull to view this as they say it could be another year before it happens again

To rectify this, and to prove that if something is truly useless it will have a home on the Internet, the University has set up a webcam with its all-seeing eye trained on the pitch experiment. Now you — yes, you! — can watch with bated breath for the long expected ninth drop to fall!

webcam
smp.uq.edu.au...

You can also see students of The University of Queensland milling around outside the cabinet, so it is more exciting than watching grass grow!

So if the pitch aint movin you can see something else
If the next drip goes unseen by the human eye at least it will be recorded
I have been watching this on and off for the last two hours and there is no movement
So i have turned it off as i am losing the will to live

www.geekosystem.com...
en.wikipedia.org...

Cran


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I am not going to click the webcam link
I am not going to click the webcam link
I am not going to click the webcam link

reply to post by artistpoet


I clicked the webcam link

Tried shaking my monitor
Banging on top of it......NO DRIP
Man that drip is so annoying

Curiosity got the best of me, clicked the link.
I can't even tell if I'm looking at a webcam feed or a picture they just put there to troll the world!

Seriously, this is excruciating, and I wonder for how long it will keep on dripping.

Oh yea, I actually saw this on TV or online news a few days ago. Worlds best paying job to watch it.

WOW amazing cant believe it it just dripped WTF

reply to post by artistpoet


I lied
2

Anyone know any bookies, maybe if Vegas gets wind of this some odds can be thrown down on hitting the date and even the time that the 9th drop occurs. One can then choose to donate their winnings to continue the required funding of the experiment for the next few generations

I'm glad it's not that stuff we put on our pancakes. I'm sure we can all agree on that one

This thread could end up running even longer the 2012 doom threads
Hey thats it it will drip 21st Dec 2012............. I bet my bottom dollar on it

Lol well it's about due for a drip, 12 years later. Unless wiki is not up to date. Last drop was 12 years apart, but previously around 7-8 years.

Pity the site appears to not be working now, cant get the video...

But you'd think after all this time since 2000, people would have had time laps to see how it's slowly flowing out.

Oh to the ^ above asking how long it will drop for? Until it's empty.

Breaking News 5000000 AD
Sun to go supernova Immanently
All life as we know it will be destroyed
On the bright side - last drop of pitch drips

Originally posted by artistpoet
reply to post by artistpoet

 

I clicked the webcam link

Tried shaking my monitor
Banging on top of it......NO DRIP
Man that drip is so annoying

I have turned my monitor upside downso that i can witness the DRIP defy Gravity

Cran

That would be like watching paint dry lol....
That would be annoying.

this is about as interesting as watching paint dry....

reply to post by artistpoet

I am not going to click the webcam link

Oh you will because you won't want to miss out on the spectacle of the drop when it dri ps

Cran

If theres accompanying stripper to the drip experiment,
I might watch

reply to post by cranspace


omg that would be worse the watching a clock when your waiting in a queue!!

It's boring me just thinking about it and I haven't even clicked the link yet

Still though it's an odd an experiment and amazing that it's still going! So are we taking bets on how long it will take to funnel through... lol at this rate I'll be long gone by the time it finishes so i'm open to any odds and no limit betting

reply to post by cranspace


They should place a clock in the background though, it just looks like a still image.

I just took a screenshot, printed it out and hanged it on my wall

Now i wont miss a thing..Win win