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My name is Ryan, figure I should mention that. I am engineering college student, currently trying to finish his senior year. I obviously consider myself a nerdy gamer geek of sorts, I've got a number of tattoos, I make funny faces. I'm a big supporter and advocate for the queer (LGBTQIA) community, and there was something else I really wanted to put here but I can't remember at all. Feel free to ask me anything, I'm pretty open to answering dumb shit.

I basically just post art (usually of a darker nature, and usually crediting the artist), anime and video game related posts, sciencey things, Doctor Who, comics, and general generalness. I almost never follow back, though I will most likely check out your tumblr and IF you are worthy, I might follow you back.

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alchymista: How Long-Running is the Longest Running Lab Experiment? Eighty-five years so far. The pitch-drop experiment—really more of a demonstration—began in 1927 when Thomas Parnell, a physics professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to show his students that tar pitch, a derivative of coal so brittle that it can be smashed to pieces with a hammer, is in fact a highly viscous fluid. It flows at room temperature, albeit extremely slowly. Parnell melted the pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, let it cool (for three years), hung the funnel over a beaker, and waited. Eight years later, a dollop of the pitch fell from the funnel’s stem. Nine years after that, another long black glob broke into the beaker. Parnell recorded the second drop but did not live to see the third, in 1954. By then, his experiment had been squirreled away in a dusty corner of the physics department. Today the experiment is broadcast on a live webcam. Some of its fans send Mainstone e-mails within minutes if the screen goes black. Despite their efforts, on November 28, 2000, the eighth, and most recent, drop of pitch fell during a camera malfunction. To this day, no one has actually witnessed the moment a drop of pitch has detached and fallen. Mainstone says it’s impossible to predict when future drops will occur, especially because the lapses between will grow longer as gases in the pitch escape and the weight of the pitch in the funnel decreases. He expects, however, that the ninth drop won’t break off before 2013. The experiment is far from complete. Says Mainstone, “It has at least 100 years left if someone doesn’t throw it out.”

alchymista:

How Long-Running is the Longest Running Lab Experiment?

Eighty-five years so far. The pitch-drop experiment—really more of a demonstration—began in 1927 when Thomas Parnell, a physics professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, set out to show his students that tar pitch, a derivative of coal so brittle that it can be smashed to pieces with a hammer, is in fact a highly viscous fluid. It flows at room temperature, albeit extremely slowly. Parnell melted the pitch, poured it into a glass funnel, let it cool (for three years), hung the funnel over a beaker, and waited.

Eight years later, a dollop of the pitch fell from the funnel’s stem. Nine years after that, another long black glob broke into the beaker. Parnell recorded the second drop but did not live to see the third, in 1954. By then, his experiment had been squirreled away in a dusty corner of the physics department.

Today the experiment is broadcast on a live webcam. Some of its fans send Mainstone e-mails within minutes if the screen goes black. Despite their efforts, on November 28, 2000, the eighth, and most recent, drop of pitch fell during a camera malfunction. To this day, no one has actually witnessed the moment a drop of pitch has detached and fallen.

Mainstone says it’s impossible to predict when future drops will occur, especially because the lapses between will grow longer as gases in the pitch escape and the weight of the pitch in the funnel decreases. He expects, however, that the ninth drop won’t break off before 2013. The experiment is far from complete. Says Mainstone, “It has at least 100 years left if someone doesn’t throw it out.”

(via scinerds)

Posted: Wed January 25th, 2012 at 7:52pm
Originally posted by alchymista.
HighRes: view

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