The person responsible for the world's longest experiment "pitch drop" died without witnessing the decisive moment, the summary of the flow so far

ByDModer101

It was continued for 86 yearsExperiment certified as Guinness Book of the World's Longest Experiment "Pitch Drop"It was announced that John Mainstone Australian University of Queensland University professor had died last week. Even if researchers take a lifetime they are not allowed to witness at a decisive moment What will happen to the pitch drop experiment after all?

Professor of "The Longest Laboratory Experiment in the World" Died, Started the Experiment in 1927 International News: AFPBB News
http://www.afpbb.com/article/environment-science-it/science-technology/2964276/11248954

World's oldest experiment ready for a drop of excitement - CNN.com
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/30/world/asia/pitch-drop-experiment

The Pitch Drop Experiment | School of Mathematics and Physics
http://smp.uq.edu.au/content/pitch-drop-experiment

◆ Pitch Drop
Pitch drop was an experiment to drip a highly viscous liquid compound called pitch, in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell of the University of Queensland. The pitch which crumbles into pieces when hit with a hammer is solid at first sight, but the experiment has started to demonstrate to students that it is liquid.

The content of the experiment is extremely simple. Put the pitch in the funnel and only observe the dripping. But this "observing" work was also extremely difficult penance. Because it is only once in about ten years that a pitch with a viscosity of 100 million times that of water drips as a drop. If you miss that decisive moment, it is a terrible world that you will be totally waiting for 10 years.

Dr. Parnell said that although he had three chances to be present at a decisive moment before he died in 1948, what he saw was a pitch after drooping.

This is an experimental device of pitch drop.


Dr. Mainstone, Second Chief Research Advisor
Dr. John Mainstone of the Australian Queensland University professor took over the pitch drop experiment after Dr. Parnell passed away. Dr. Mainstone challenges to see the decisive moment when the pitch drop drops, but all this challenge will fail.

At the "moment" in 1979, Dr. Mainstone went to the annual camp every Sunday and failed. The "moment" in 1988 is the fate of failure to arrive at the laboratory just 5 minutes after pitch fall. After that, Dr. Mainstone wondered "Want to see the moment of falling because it does not have to be macroscopic," while photographing the pitch drop with the camera and waiting for that time. And the visited moment of 2000 was a painful mistake that nothing was reflected on the film due to technical problems.

This is the state of the current pitch drop.The site of the pitch drop experiment of the University of QueenslandIn can be confirmed.


◆ Decisive moment coming
The time will arrive at the end with a mainstone doctor who is at the mercy of fate of fate. Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland who started the pitch drop experiment in 1944, succeeded in photographing the moment the pitch falls. It is this movie that captured that moment.

Pitch tar drop finally falls! - YouTube


Dr. Mainstone would have brushed at this movie. The pitch which should have been dropped once in about ten years has not fallen easily since 13 years have already passed since I missed the decisive moment in 2000, and as a result, the Trinity College has gone past. Therefore. By the way, Dr. Mainstone said at the beginning of this year, "The next drop will fall within the year," he said. Dr. Mainstone was a crying pitch everywhere.

If so, I do not know whether Dr. Mainstone was burning with ambition, "I will see the decision moment with the naked eye for the first time in the world", but at last the doctor left this world without the ambition being realized .

Dr. Mainstone of the day and experiment equipment.


Currently, the pitch drop experiment is continuously monitored using three web cameras to capture the moment when the pitch of the ninth drop drops. From the remaining amount of the pitch drop, it is expected that the experiment will continue for nearly 100 years, but it is interesting whether the luckiest researcher in the world who will grasp the decisive moment with the naked eye appears.