Our minds work in strange ways

[PeterT]

Not sure why I thought of it, but I just remembered as a child hearing from my mother about an experiment that was being done in the Physics Department at the University of Wales in Aberystwyth.

My mother was a Bachelor of Science graduate in Chemistry and Mathematics, while my father earned a PhD in Physics, both from Aberystwyth, I believe graduating in the 1940s (not sure of the exact year).

The experiment involved showing that pitch is actually a liquid at room temperature.

For some reason I googled it, and at first was coming up with an Australian experiment claimed to be the longest running experiment, started in 1927 using tar. My initial searches were not turning up Aber but more searches finally found it! Started in 1914 it seems to have been forgotten until rediscovered in 2014!

One large difference is that tar is thinner than pitch so in fact the Queensland experiment has produced 8 or 9 drops, while Welsh experiment is still drop free with estimates it might take 1000 years for the first drop!

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[neil_swann80]

Pitch drop experiment livestream

[badgoodDeb]

cool!

[Quoth]

If you find it too exciting watching paint drying...

I think I'd heard about this.

When I was a kid I was told at school and by my dad that glass is liquid. Look how it's thicker at the bottom of old small panes. In fact unlike tar or pitch, glass is not a liquid. The fatter at bottom is because the glass making result in wedge profile cross-section, so they naturally mounted the fatter edge at the bottom.

A pair of weights on a wire will gradually fall through a block of ice (I've seen this) and not because ice is liquid, but the pressure causes the ice to melt and it re-freezes behind the wire.

They told us a lot of "lies" even in secondary school. The glass, lead based additive in petrol a good idea. Red, yellow and blue are primary colours (really Magenta, yellow and cyan are subtractive "primaries" in art). Rugby and cricket good for you. Kennedy told the Germans he was a donut. Cuckoo clocks are Swiss (in the Third Man too, they are a Bavarian idea). The Tudors were good, the Romans were good, the British Empire was good and William of Orange was good (he was an usurper and only entitled to be Prince Consort, with Mary as Queen, if her father James really abdicated).

[Martinoptic]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Pitch drop experiment livestream

Thanks Neil!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by neil_swann80

Pitch drop experiment livestream

When we went up to help with '74 flood recovery we were billeted at the UQ and I recall see that experiment.

I've been trying to remember who said something for days.