It all started in 1927, when physicist Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland in Australia filled a closed funnel with the world’s thickest known fluid: pitch<\/a>, a derivative of tar that was once used to seal ships against the seas.<\/p>\n Related: It’s One of History’s Most Famous Experiments. The Drawings Are Hilarious.<\/a><\/p>\n Three years later, in 1930, Parnell cut the funnel’s stem, like a ribbon at an event, heralding the start of the Pitch Drop Experiment<\/a>. From then on, the black substance began to flow.<\/p>\n At least, that is, in a manner of speaking. At room temperature pitch might look solid, but it is actually a fluid 100 billion times more viscous than water.<\/p>\n It took eight years for the first droplet to finally hit the beaker below. Then, they dripped at a cadence of once every eight years or so, slowing down only after air conditioning was installed in the building in the 1980s.<\/p>\n Related: Decades Old Physics Mystery \u2013 Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem Finally Solved<\/a><\/p>\n Today, 96 years after the funnel was cut, only nine drops<\/a> in total have seeped out. The last was in 2014.<\/p>\n Scientists expect<\/a> another will fall sometime in the 2020s, but they are still waiting.<\/p>\n No one has ever actually seen a droplet fall directly, despite all the watchful eyes. The experiment is now live-streamed<\/a>, but various glitches in the past meant that each fateful moment has slipped us by.<\/p>\n After Parnell, fellow physicist John Mainstone took over caretaking duties in 1961. Sadly, both died without ever seeing a droplet fall with their own two eyes.<\/p>\n Related: Scientists Grew Microbes in a Lab Experiment, And They Evolved a New Sense<\/a><\/p>\n Mainstone was custodian for 52 years. In 2000, he missed a drop<\/a> because a thunderstorm disrupted the live feed. He passed away just a few months before the next drop oozed out in April 2014.<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769055923_893_0.jpg\")
frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”><\/p>\n![\"World's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/University_of_Queensland_Pitch_drop_experiment-white_bg.jpg\")
The pitch drop experiment before a new beaker replaced the full one. (UQ\/Wikimedia Commons\/CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n
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