July 23rd, 2013
It’s slower than molasses in January or watching grass grow.
After an extreme exercise in patience, the pitch finally dropped in Trinity College’s “Pitch Drop” experiment. Nobel Prize winner Ernest Walton began the experiment at Trinity College in 1944 to prove the viscous nature of pitch. The event marks the first time that a pitch drop was caught on camera.
Professor Thomas Parnell of University of Queensland began a similar experiment in 1927, which ran through 8 drops and is working its way towards a 9th. It is thought to be the longest running active experiment. Despite two multi-decade experiments, no pitch drop was caught on camera until this month. A webcam malfunction in 2000 prevented the video capture of the 8th drop at University of Queensland. Multiple live webcams now track the Queensland experiment, which is poised to drop soon.
For more fascinating coverage of the Pitch Drop Experiment, check out Radiolab episode Never Quite Now.