Topic: Totally OT: Pitch drop test success!

[Francois]

Warning: if you think you'll find anything in this post remotely related to photography, you're very wrong

I just thought I'd share with you this moment of pure geek joy!
In Dublin, at Trinity College, an experiment has been started in October 1944. It consists of measuring pitch dripping down a funnel. Since pitch (a type of tar) is 230 billion times more viscous than water, things tend to move rather slowly. So slow in fact that no human had ever seen a drop fall into the beaker below... until now!
Using a series of webcams to do time lapse video, a drop has finally been captured. So, if you want to see what pitch flowing through a funnel and dropping into a beaker looks like, here's the video.

Pitch tar drop finally falls!

Oh joy! It worked! 

[irv_b]

Thanks Francois! Oh the anticipation of the wait and then the drop-that's made my saturday

[Late Developer]

I have no-one else to blame. No-one else made me watch that. My only defence is that it was over quickly. Relatively speaking - and I'm soooo glad about that. Next up is paint drying and then an in-depth study of the "movements" of the two toed Sloth.....

I do hope that there was no money paid for that bit of research or brownie points / degrees awarded. It's the sort of thing that convinces me that university tuition fees aren't quite high enough yet....

[Francois]

Now that they know how long it takes between drops, maybe there will be a full high definition full length movie for the next one 

Just imagine the presenter 


But I'm with you on the "I hope this didn't cost money" thing. Just imagine if some scientist were to put this in his resume!
"What research were you responsible of?" "I was assigned to the pitch drop experiment." "What are your main tasks?" "Waiting for the pitch to drop."

Somebody might be getting an Ig Nobel for this!

[moominsean]

Kinda reminds me of walking my dog...

[Francois]

The slow part or the gooey part? 

[Ezzie]

Have you not seen the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK's live transmissions of long and boring events? As if we Norwegians didn't have enough stereotypes affixed to ourselves to begin with. It's become a news event of global proportions and endless ridicule. 

Wiki: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television (list but the two first, since then several more train and ferry rides, and at the moment an afternoon summer TV show on a ship travelling the length of the coast (and back), equivalent to circumnavigating GB twice).

Also Google: Nrk minute by minute   OR   NRK minutt for minutt

Makes looking at pitch drops or paint drying seem like a most expeditous affair.

[Late Developer]

Have you not seen the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK's live transmissions of long and boring events? As if we Norwegians didn't have enough stereotypes affixed to ourselves to begin with. It's become a news event of global proportions and endless ridicule. 

Wiki: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television (list but the two first, since then several more train and ferry rides, and at the moment an afternoon summer TV show on a ship travelling the length of the coast (and back), equivalent to circumnavigating GB twice).

Also Google: Nrk minute by minute   OR   NRK minutt for minutt

Makes looking at pitch drops or paint drying seem like a most expeditous affair.

I will never complain about the BBC ever again 

[jojonas~]

francois: I thank you for posting this!

Have you not seen the Norwegian national broadcaster NRK's live transmissions of long and boring events? As if we Norwegians didn't have enough stereotypes affixed to ourselves to begin with. It's become a news event of global proportions and endless ridicule. 

Wiki: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_television (list but the two first, since then several more train and ferry rides, and at the moment an afternoon summer TV show on a ship travelling the length of the coast (and back), equivalent to circumnavigating GB twice).

Also Google: Nrk minute by minute   OR   NRK minutt for minutt

Makes looking at pitch drops or paint drying seem like a most expeditous affair.

so THAT's what it was! they showed Bergensbanen minutt for minutt not too long ago on swedish television. I had it on while dishing without knowing, the sound freaked me out after a while though -not knowing what the heck it was haha

[Francois]

Well, they do hole a Guinness for the longest uninterrupted tv show...