
Pitch Drop Experiment - Amorymeltzer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment
======
JoeAltmaier
Not fair! They discount two longer-running experiments because they were
interrupted. Then go on to explain how this experimental procedure was changed
halfway through to control for temperature. So really, not the world's
longest-running experiment. Not by a century.

~~~
2zcon
It's a pet belief of mine that Guinness World Records are a 'scam'. The big
sporting records, like fastest 100 m sprint, are actually tracked by the
sports bodies. What say they have in the matter is its own debate (e.g.
there's no record for the 150 m, because the IAAF don't sanction a 150 m race,
but there was a famous unsanctioned race between winners of the 100 m and 200
m races), particularly in sports with multiple federations or codes, but at
least they sometimes have international government funding from which to
derive some kind of authority.

GWR have nothing but a tacky book, yet we've all been sucked into this notion
that it's not an official world record unless they say it is. And what they
accept as a record is subject to strict guidelines (i.e. what they're willing
to put in a child's Christmas stocking) and dubious rulesets. There are even
unbreakable 'first xyz' records and geographically limited 'world' records.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Its an entertainment book to have in a bar to settle bets. If you have
something more convenient/as cheap, let us all know!

~~~
dfxm12
I've never been to a bar that actually had the book. Is this a regional thing?

~~~
stronglikedan
Have you made a bet in a bar that the book could have settled? Maybe they only
pull it out when needed, instead of keeping it on display.

------
somishere
I walked past this 'experiment' every day for a number of years at UQ in
Brisbane (on route to my lunchtime nap in the great court). The glass cabinet
is fairly inconspicuous, sitting outside a bunch of small rooms, above a minor
thoroughfare. I don't remember exactly how long it took me to take notice and
stop to read the inscription (2 years+?) but I was impressed when I did. And
it's extraordinary the number of times it has come up in conversation since.

------
chongli
For some reason, I find the thought of a pitch drop hanging on (for years and
years before falling) very unsettling. I just want it to fall already!

~~~
comboy
Seems like precisely the thing that so many mobile games are monetizing on.

------
leoc
St. Andrews has one as well, apparently dating to 1927 too.
[https://books.google.ie/books?id=74PgZAHPw38C&pg=PA32&lpg=PA...](https://books.google.ie/books?id=74PgZAHPw38C&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%22st.+andrews%22+%22pitch+drop%22&source=bl&ots=lKIjtti0yZ&sig=ACfU3U0ZonS2S7YhxVoa-6Yy9DTp1nKS0Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0_K-
Tmb7nAhWoUhUIHWDAAXkQ6AEwAXoECGEQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22st.%20andrews%22%20%22pitch%20drop%22&f=false)
It was on display in the Physics building, and I assume probably still is.

------
jancsika
> Large droplets form and fall over a period of about a decade.

It would be fun to pair this with a program that outputs the amount of liquid
collected, with the display delayed by the amount of time it took for the
previous droplet to fall.

------
carapace
(I want to tease the Long Now folks about their clock: Why not just make a big
pitch drop "water" clock? I know, I know, it's not to their point, and FWIW I
love the machines they make, but the reliability and simplicity of a 10,000+
year clock made of pitch has something going for it, _ne?_ )

~~~
Retric
Calibration is a huge issue for clocks. Your pitch water clock would have
issues knowing the correct month after 10,000 years. But, if you just want
cheap and long lasting, erosion of a large stone is worth considering.

~~~
carapace
Oh I know, it's a dumb joke.

------
woliveirajr
It's a good source for a RNG. Just compute if the interval for two consecutive
drops is bigger os smaller from the two previous drops.

Might block, of course, if you ask _too frequently_ for a new bit.

~~~
zamadatix
Would be a highly biased random source, only one drop was quicker.

------
_pmf_
My dream research job.

~~~
ineedasername
"Has another drop fallen yet? No." Done working for the day.

~~~
rubidium
Plus you can work from home:
[https://livestream.com/accounts/4931571/events/5369913](https://livestream.com/accounts/4931571/events/5369913)

~~~
vageli
What a time to be alive. This is incredible. I wonder what those balloons in
the case are used for.

~~~
rch
That's the older beaker containing the previous drops.

------
busterarm
Is today "post a wikipedia article" day?

------
alister
What, no mention about glass being an even more viscous liquid? I grew up
believing the story about medieval church windows being thicker at the bottom
because the glass had flowed downward over a period of centuries. It turns out
that medieval windows are indeed thicker at the bottom but the part about
glass being a "slow liquid" was wrong:

 _These windows are thicker at the bottom owing to the production process.
Back during medieval times, a lump of molten glass was rolled, expanded, and
flattened before being spun into a disc and cut into panes. These sheets were
thicker around the edges and installed such that the heavier side was at the
bottom._ [1]

[1] [https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-glass-is-a-liquid-myth-has-
final...](https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-glass-is-a-liquid-myth-has-finally-been-
destroyed-496190894)

~~~
starpilot
nth time i've seen this posted on HN

------
peter_d_sherman
Excerpt:

University of Queensland experiment

"The best known version[1] 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 which appear solid are actually
highly viscous fluids_."

Perhaps conversely, perhaps all solid materials are really just liquid... just
locked in place by a local stasis field of some sort... call that stasis field
time, gravity, magnetism, the electrostatic, or strong or weak nuclear
forces... Perhaps the stasis field and the distance of its effect, is also
relative to scale... and perhaps all fields are just variations of interia,
relative to scale and material...

