Experiment finally yields result after 69 years!
Scientists have long concluded that
tar is actually a fluid, which—at room temperature—seems like a solid. To
prove this, scholars from the Trinity College Dublin set up a pitch-drop
experiment to demonstrate high viscosity or low fluidity of pitch using bitumen
as the fluid in 1944. After 69 agonizing years, some of which went on
unobserved, the experiment has yield a single drop and putting smiles on the
faces of scientists worldwide.
As luck would have it, the
experiment was actually sitting on a shelf collecting dust until physicists
from the college decided to start recording the experiment using a webcam last
April.
Trinity College physicists estimate
that viscosity of the pitch is 2 million times more viscous than honey, and 20
billion times more than that of water. A single drop of liquid doesn’t
sound that exciting, but if you waited 69 years to see it drop, it’s probably
one of the most satisfying drop you’ll ever see.
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