World’s Longest Lab Experiment Which is Still Running

mmWorld`s  longest running scientific experiment  involves a funnel full of tar pitch that through a funnel has been slowly dripping form past 85 years.

This experiment was started  by Thomas Parnell in 1927 .He was a physics professor of the University of Queensland, Australia.He want to prove that pitch is a viscous fluid to his students so he melted the pitch, put it in the funnel and waited for it to drop.

Eight years later the first drop of pitch fell and after another nine years second drop fell Parnell recorded the second drop but did not live to see the third drop, actually no one has seen a drop fall in person.

Since 1961Professor John Mainstone  has been the custodian of the experiment.The experiment is still running . On November 28, 2000, the eighth, and most recent, drop of pitch fell during a camera malfunction so no one has seen the drop fall but now , the experiment has its own live webcam  where fans are  awaiting  for drop number 9  but Professor John Mainstone expects,  that the ninth drop won’t break off before 2013.

He also says,

It has at least 100 years left if someone doesn’t throw it out

[Via]

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Posted by Paracha on January 27, 2012. Filed under Articles, Life Style, Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry