00:02It looks like it could drop at any second, yet the pitch in this beaker was poured almost
00:07100 years ago.
00:08In 1927 Thomas Parnell set up the pitch drop experiment.
00:12He took some pitch, presumably made it liquid over hot water, poured it into a sealed glass
00:19funnel and then left it cool for three years until 1930.
00:23In 1930 he cut the bottom off the funnel and the pitch began to flow like a liquid, even
00:29though it's a solid.
00:30The UQ demonstration teaches students how pitch, a solid residue of tar, could flow when
00:35under pressure.
00:37Calculations show it's moving at about one atom per second.
00:40This thing is moving way, way slower than the continent of Australia, which is moving north
00:44at 6.8 centimetres a year.
00:46So if you look down at the ground between your feet, that is the Red Bull version of the pitch
00:50drop experiment.
00:51Just nine drops of pitch have fallen from the experiment since the funnel was first cut in
00:551930.
00:56To date, nobody has actually witnessed a drop fall, but with the next predicted to happen
01:01in a few years, that could be about to change.
01:04Even new technology like webcams hasn't been enough to capture a drop in motion.
01:09We lost power for 20 minutes, do you want to guess what happened in those 20 minutes?
01:12We had no camera and the pitch dropped.
01:15Professor White is the third custodian of the pitch drop and has just one big wish for the
01:20future.
01:21I'd love to be able to witness it in person, but I would settle for just a really good recording.
01:25So as follows go away.
01:27You
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