Comments on: "You can measure your life in a number of drops."

"You can measure your life in a number of drops."

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:11:04 -0800

World's longest-running experiment captures elusive tar pitch drop fall on video after 84 years of waiting — though, sadly, too late for physicist and former pitch drop custodian Prof. John Mainstone, who passed away last year.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:14:40 -0800

Related, although it challenges your "longest-running-experiment" claim. But what's science without a little prestige dust-up?

By: el io

el io — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:37:05 -0800

Previously, previously.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:53:37 -0800

This has been posted several times since the previous drop, which is kind of cool.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:56:03 -0800

If "9th drop touched 8th drop" is the new standard of achievement, I wonder what the deal with the 10th drop is going to be. The 'bottom' which the pitch drop must reach has been working its way up, even as the time between drops has gone longer. Interesting. (A factor of less pitch above the drop pushing down on it? Maybe.) Shouldn't they just start over with a taller flask underneath? Or don't scientists today want to bother with a project that is still going to be going on when they're long gone? Is this just a shark jumping ve-e-e-r-r-ry sl-o-o-o-w-w-w-ly-y-y?

By: Bistle

Bistle — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 16:59:43 -0800

There are two versions of the experiment referenced here. The one in Ireland was a copycat that dropped last year after 69 years. This one in Australia was the original one, and it dropped after 84 years just now. Cool!

By: valkane

valkane — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:11:08 -0800

If you ask me, Mainstone is better off having missed this. Talk about your failure to plan ahead.

By: billiebee

billiebee — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:20:37 -0800

John Mainstone, who oversaw the experiment for more than 50 years until his death last August, missed observing the drops fall three times – by a day in 1977, by just five minutes in 1988 and, perhaps most annoying, in 2000, when the webcam that was recording it was hit by a 20-minute power outage. It's gutting that he didn't get to see one fall after half a century waiting, while this is the first I've heard of the experiment and all I had to do was click on a link and be like "Cool!", all casual-like. It's kind of humbling to think about the timescale. When the experiment started neither of my parents were born, and given the rate of fall after only ten drops I might be in my 50s.

By: Bistle

Bistle — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:28:39 -0800

Yeah, by 'experiment referenced here' I mean 'conflated here'. Anyway, I love this experiment, I'm a sucker for a slow moving process. It's kind of a shame that the media reports tend to focus on the 'scientist missed seeing life's work completed' angle. Putting something like this in motion and having multitudes invested in observing it beyond your mortal existence is something to aspire to as an artist or a scientist. Reminds me of ASLSP

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:31:22 -0800

This has been posted several times. Well, I missed it, and so am grateful to see the post.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:55:17 -0800

The video of the pitch drop is scored with some stock Garageband loops that I used to play with. Kind of disorienting to have such a personal connection to science.

By: Tsuga

Tsuga — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 20:50:57 -0800

World's longest-running experiment Pshaw! Come back when you've passed you sesquicentennial.

By: scruss

scruss — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 02:48:55 -0800

There's also Kelvin's Pitch Ramp, still going at the Hunterian in Glasgow since 1887.

By: grateful

grateful — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 04:05:03 -0800

Well, I missed it, and so am grateful to see the post. posted by IndigoJones at 8:31 PM on April 19 Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 09:59:08 -0800

Well, I missed it, and so am grateful to see the post. Perhaps an FPP on the pitch drop could be automatically generated at increasing intervals....

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:35:41 -0800

It's gutting that he didn't get to see one fall after half a century waiting, Well, nobody has actually seen one fall, except in ex post facto recordings, so his expectations were probably a bit low. But one can also see it as watching the not falling, so to speak, and in its own way that is scientifically intriguing.