The worlds most viscous fluid

I came across this interesting article from the University of Queensland, Australia. It's about this substance that seems like it's rock, but it's actually fluid.

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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 (see the RealVideo® clip below). It's quite amazing then, to see that pitch at room temperature is actually fluid!

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The professor made an experiment and but the pitch inside a container with a hole in the bottom, to see if it would drip. Since the start of the experiment (1927) there have been 7 drops of pitch from the container. That's one drop every 10 years!

On this page you can even see a video (in relplayer format) about the experiment: http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/pitchdrop/pitchdrop.shtml

did you know glass is liquid too

but instead of 10 years it takes over a thousand years for a drop to come off you monitor !

Nice post!
Did some google about glass is liquid http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/IRG-GLAS...-disguised.pdf

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Originally posted here by the_JinX
did you know glass is liquid too

but instead of 10 years it takes over a thousand years for a drop to come off you monitor !

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I'm not gonna wait for that. I spend too much time in front of the monitor already. :)

hmmm....drooopy window's....

I guess that sounds more good for me, cause I'm a mechanical enginner.
Thanks proactive

can't even spell your own title..

Interesting post, things that are not very elastic are always neat to experiment with. But if you want to start talking about glass, then you minus well start talking about everything else, since technically everything has a tendency to return to its orginal state. Wouldn't that be a site, not only seeing the glass drip off of your monitor, but seeing your monitor itself melt away :).

{Just a little add on about the glass : In some old european castles the windows that have remained intact, are actually noticably larger on the bottom due to the fact that they are 'melting' away.}

it would take much less than 1000 years for me to start dripping!

I really enjoyed this article and experiment probably because it spanned so much time. After reading the article on glass too I wondered it scientists had ever viewed the atomic structure of the pitch. Is it random (erg liquid) or is it ordered (ergo Solid). If the former we have the slow dripping of a very solid liquid. If the latter we have the even more interesting proposition of a slightly liquid solid.

Not to dispute the other posts but according to the end of the article on glass researchers said it would not drip since the bonds overpowered any liquid traits at room temperature. The statement about the castles is very interesting (I believe I have heard it before) and I believe true especially since throughout summers castle's windows are rarely at "room temperature" but actually quite a bit hotter. I wonder how much it would cost to get a 1000 year warranty on my monitor to replace it when it drips.

One final question, which is faster dripping pitch or M$ activity to really tighten security? Trick question, dripping pitch actually exists.

Anyway thanks for an interesting post.

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Originally posted here by The3ntropy

Just a little add on about the glass : In some old european castles the windows that have remained intact, are actually noticably larger on the bottom due to the fact that they are 'melting' away.

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Actually, it turns out that the larger on the bottom windows was just a side effect of the way they created windows (The builders had the presence of mind to put the heaver end down)
The page from the usenet physics FAQ:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physic...ass/glass.html

Salvador Dali...
That's the first name that came to mind while reading these posts.

'Persistence of Memory', in particular (of course)

Ouroboros

I think in some places they found that some of the glass was actually thicker at the TOP, suggesting that the relative thicknesses was NOT a product of time.

It's sort of pointless, the distinction between a solid and a liquid is actually arbitrary. I don't think it's anywhere near as clear cut as they tell kids in their first science classes.