What is Digg?67 Comments
- baraqiyal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9You can do the same thing with 7-11 coffee.
- iliketurtles2, on 11/20/2008, -0/+4http://www.richard-seaman.com/Travel/TrinidadAndTobago/Trinidad/PitchLake/index.html
The above link is quite interesting, an entire lake of pitch - sucking things in and spitting them out! - skyhighrockets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Technically speaking, the eighth drop in Parnell's famous Pitch-Drop demonstration experiment "fell" at the end of November last year, while I was overseas. Unfortunately the high-tech webcam's digital memory also suffered a bout of amnesia at the crucial moment."
- funkytaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Another thing. Someone should try this experiment with glass also. It's technically a semisolid as well, though I suspect we may need several generations of professors to tell us how it went.
- CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Holy *****, i JUST realized that this is where the term "pitch black" or "black as pitch" came from!! Yes, i know. Now that's 2 rediculously slow things!
"this is kind of like glass.. is glass a solid or liquid? if you look at old windows that are over 100 years old, you'll see that the pane is thicker on the bottom, than on the top, when originally the thickness was uniform."
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/Glass/glass.html - ajamison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The "new" comment from Prof Mainstone is dated June 2001......With a site that outdated I wonder how the experiement is going now, and if the "feed" is really live or not? Any way to verify this?
- Ohnodonho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1either
(A) - the "live" feed is running a loop
or
(B) - that's the 9th one that is about to fall, which seems early
........thats how i see it - Sumyunguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They have the backup 8 Volt right there waiting for the old one to run out
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Professor watches grass grow... news at 11 (2027).
- shakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"this is kind of like glass.. is glass a solid or liquid? if you look at old windows that are over 100 years old, you'll see that the pane is thicker on the bottom, than on the top, when originally the thickness was uniform."
Everybody who utters this crap without researching is just being a dork like everyone else who keeps stupid urban legends alive. Glass is a solid and it does not flow at all at room temperature.
The reason why old windows are thicker at the bottom is because they were always that way due to inferior older methods of making glass. They were installed thick side down so the thin part of the glass didn't have to support the weight of the whole window. In fact, if you look at enough of these windows you'll see some that were installed upside down and the thick part is indeed at the top. - kualla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wow and I thought you had to do some pretty smart stuff to be called a professor... Maybe I should become a professor and do wierd experiments to prove uhhhhh, errrrrr, mmmmm, IDK
- fraserspeirs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Isn't Lord Kelvin's artifical glacier experiment (started ~1887) a bit older?
- ajamison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ohnodonho -
What's what I was thinking...His "new update" says:
"the eighth drop in Parnell's famous Pitch-Drop demonstration experiment "fell" at the end of November last year," dated June 2001, so that would mean the 8th drop was fell in Nov. 2000...On that audio he said the drops can take like 10 years...
The video feed drop seems way too far along, with it only about 5 years since the last one. I'd love to see a real live feed, rather than this loop =/ - toddmok, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0oh man I hope I don't experience any lag when watching this feed... wouldn't want to miss the drop after 5 years of watching it.
Oh and to the people who think this might not be live, look at how big the previous drop was (the large blob in the beaker). This would show that the current drop is roughly half the size of the previous drop and then would be relatively live. Just my view of it at least. - jerbaker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Doesn't anyone find it strange that not one comment so far has pointed out that it's 2006, and so it has been 76 years and not 72?
- gnalakalaciath5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0[sarcasm]whoa, you really shouldn't post stuff this exciting on digg, i almost had a heart attack when i saw that super-fast-paced camera feed.[/sarcasm]
- asphnctrsezwhat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There is a lot of pitch in older "tar" roofs because under the sun it would liquify and reseal itself.
The stuff sucks for roofers. If you manage to get dust from broken pitch on your skin it will cause what looks like a sunburn by the end of a cloudy day. On a sunny day your skin can start to crack and bleed. If you get it in your eyes you'd better have somebody else to drive you home because you're not going to be able to open them for a while.
That type of roofing is past history now, but it's still used to seal around odd shaped penetrations now and again.
I may have paid for my college education by roofing, but I would never have guessed that anything from that experience would ever show up on this site. - Trjn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"They can/could easily setup a low power laser detection device to track the acceleration of movement. I suppose they may not have the funding for that tho."
I'm pretty sure UQ has the funding if they wanted, its just that this appears to be a casual experiment and they really don't want to.
Oh well, maybe next time I drop by UQ I might go have a look at this, but oddly enough I don't expect much to happen. - tw0bit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pretty cool, I have never heard of "pitch" before though...is it still used today?
- compressedaudio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Fascinating story.
MMMM treacle toffee! - eliomar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0i belive this got an ig-noble but may have been nominated. Very intreasting to see its a liquid.
- Ohnodonho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wow, so then i guess it fell in November 2000??? man..... we're behind
http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/pitchdrop/mainstone.html - RMuffin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That's pretty sweet.
I'm gonna do my own variation though, it's gonna be 'The ***** Drip'. - Dr.Gonzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"To view the Pitch Drop Experiment you'll need the Windows Media Player: "
- sarynx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0how can you tell it's a loop? did the drop suddenly move up at the end of the audio track?
- Ohnodonho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm going to watch this night and day waiting for it to fall so I can say i am the 1st!! but ill probably fall asleep right when it falls. it doesn't look like its gonna drop anytime soon, it might take a few weeks but i wouldn't know.
- dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0intense stuff
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow, their cam actually works.
Nice find. - funkytaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In the 69 years that the pitch has been dripping no-one has ever seen the drop fall.
Only thing missing from the webpage is a flash version of the live movie stream and a message to "turn up your audio all the way before watching the pitch drop" so we can scare the scheisse out of unsuspecting Diggers. - Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The lave web cam, is SO EXCITING! I grabing popcorn!
- Schmitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If you look at the webcam, you can see the 8th drop sitting in the beaker, with a new one already formed. The page hasn't been updated for some time.
- Dingoaus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yay. Good to see my University is getting the recognition it deserves :)
Go UQ! - Chasin_Fat_Kids, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Very cool.
About the glass being a liquid; if you go to an old house you can sometimes notice the windows looking "wavey" and the tops of the panes are not as thick as the bottom. A very slow moving liquid. - timdorr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0All I can say is I hope he gets his PhD after doing all that :P
- CaptSnuffy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"I'm pretty sure Seumas is talking about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy."
But in HHGTTG the Earth is a computer, not a lab experiment. - puny_midget, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"_We_ are the longest continuously running lab experiment."
Yes, but the Earth (commonly mistaken for a planet), has failed and is now totally useless. All the experiment data had been contaminated by a bunch of middle class hairdressers and telephone cleaners that crash landed some time around 2 million years ago. They killed off the native beings and established themselves; we are the descendants with a really screwed up version of the final experiment results. - multifaceted, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@bugmeno
I'm pretty sure Seumas is talking about Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. - EmileVictor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@Dingoaus - god, I want to go to UQ bt this's gotta be the most boring, boring thing I've ever seen. XD
I like seeing the ones that have already dropped, though.
And yes, glass DOES drip. On very old french windows you can see at the bottom that blobs of glass have slowly formed at the bottom. - iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Warning: this does NOT work as an egg timer." ---hehe more like an average lifetime timer
- phoenixdig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I went to UQ as well. I remember there was a film crew there a few years ago from a local tv station doing a story for a kids show. They had to cut the filming of the experiment short as the TV crews camera lights were so hot that it would have affected the experiment by making the pitch less vicous.
- awakekiwi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0glass is a liquid too guys, like dude, im looking out an very old window now and i can see where its settled slightly, cool aye geez
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Glass doesn't flow.
http://www.glassnotes.com/WindowPanes.html - PercyKittenz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I remember hearing about how glass is an amorphus (slow-moving) solid from my 7th grade science teacher. Are you telling me that public education can be wrong?
- signal15, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Glass will do the same thing, but it takes hundreds or thousands of years.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From that-
"Viscosity depends on the chemical composition of the glass. Even germanium oxide glass, which flows more easily than other types, would take 10 to the 32 power years to sag, (that's a 10 with 32 zeros) Zanotto calculates. Medieval stained glass contains impurities that could lower the viscosity and speed the flow, but even a significant reduction wouldn't alter the conclusion, he remarks, since the age of the universe is only 10 to the 10th power. Editors Note: That's 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years folks. Try saying that number with a mouthful of marbles." - ptknight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0broken
- Brak710101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Lets set up a live web cam to watch it fall!!11one!11Onehunderedandeleven!11
- Cyberdactyl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0They can/could easily setup a low power laser detection device to track the acceleration of movement. I suppose they may not have the funding for that tho.
- kwoff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"In the 69 years that the pitch has been dripping no-one has ever seen the drop fall."
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hmm, there's a live link where you can watch the pitch in real-time.. They say nobody ever seen it drop, want to take a chance and have a peek for a couple of hours? :)
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