This post was originally published on here
In a world obsessed with instant results, one experiment has defied the clock, making progress drip by drip, at a painstaking pace.
Running uninterrupted for nearly a century, the Pitch Drop Experiment is often described as the ultimate lesson in scientific patience, and it continues to fascinate researchers and the public alike.
The experiment began in 1927 at the University of Queensland in Australia, when physicist Thomas Parnell set out to prove a simple point: materials that appear solid can, in fact, be fluids.
advertisement
To demonstrate this, Parnell poured a tar-like substance once used to waterproof ships into a sealed glass funnel. This substance, called Pitch, is the thickest known fluid on Earth, and is around 100 billion times more viscous than water.
Three years later, in 1930, Parnell cut the narrow stem of the funnel, officially starting what would become the world’s longest-running laboratory experiment.
From that moment, scientists waited for gravity to do its work. And the wait was anything but brief.
At room temperature, the pitch looks solid and shatters if struck with a hammer. But under constant gravitational pull, it does flow. The catch is that it flows incredibly slowly.
It took eight long years for the first drop to finally fall into the beaker placed below the funnel. After that, drops formed roughly once every eight years, slowing further after air conditioning was installed in the building during the 1980s.
As of today, 96 years after the experiment officially began, only nine drops have fallen.
The most recent drop appeared in April 2014. Scientists believe the tenth drop could fall sometime in the 2020s, but no one knows exactly when.
What makes the experiment even more remarkable is that no human has ever actually seen a drop fall.
Despite decades of observation and a live stream, technical glitches and sheer bad luck have meant each moment has been missed.
After Parnell’s death, physicist John Mainstone took over as custodian in 1961. He monitored the experiment for 52 years but never witnessed a drop himself.
In 2000, he missed one when a thunderstorm disrupted the camera feed. Tragically, he passed away just months before the 2014 drop occurred.
Today, physics professor Andrew White is the third custodian, keeping watch for the elusive tenth drop.
The Pitch Drop Experiment may look uneventful, but it carries a powerful message.
It showcases that nature doesn’t rush, and science doesn’t always move at human speed. Sometimes, discovery is measured not in seconds or years, but in decades.
– Ends
