Every time I sit down to write this post, I…..don’t do it. I have no idea why. It may be because it requires pulling pictures off of my phone, and I hate doing that. But not for any particular reason. So anyway, if you’re reading this, I actually managed to write the whole thing this time. Yay!

” Doesn’t that sound fun? It was in an episode of Radiolab–the one about Speed–that we learned about #2.

The first Professor of Physics at the University of Queensland, Professor Thomas Parnell, began an experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties. The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats. At room temperature pitch feels solid – even brittle – and can easily be shattered with a blow from a hammer. It’s quite amazing then, to see that pitch at room temperature is actually fluid!

In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel – so slowly that now, 83 years later, the ninth drop is only just forming.

Okay, so they have this stuff, and once a decade or so another drop of it falls. Exciting! But it sort of is, because you can go watch the livecam on their website! And, if you’re lucky, you’ll be staring at it when the pitch drops, which everyone expects to be ANY DAY NOW! (This is why putting this entry off so long has been so dangerous. The pitch might drop while I’m typing). We check on the pitch a lot.