A drop of pitch, captured on camera, after 69 years

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I know it usually takes a while for a pitch to be adapted into a finished film but this is just ridiculous.

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Radiolab did a very interesting episode about this a few months ago. Very exciting to hear they finally caught the drop! :]

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Took me a while to get it but, evil chuckle followed.

Next time they should try setting up as many drip rigs as they can in the view of the camera. Could probably fit at least ten without trying very hard, significantly increasing the odds of success.

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It’s like a metaphor for how this afternoon is going at work.

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I came in here to say “NEEEEEERRRRRRRDDDDDS!” but your comment is much more accurate so I will like it instead. God this workday needs to be over.

It’s not a question of if as much as it’s a question of when and how.

I know, right? Parallel isn’t that hard of a concept. They could even set up a room full of a thousand of these things with 1 camera

Yeah, but what about this:

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Student’s from Trinity College Dublin class of 1944 are expected to have their completed reports on the experiment handed in by tomorrow at 9am.

I was disappointed that the animated GIF wasn’t in real time.They can still do this, if they keep the camera running until the next drop falls in roughly a decade.

This is what animated GIFs are FOR!

Ah! All that waiting, and they didn’t even give the pitch enough room to completely separate before hitting the bottom of the container. That seems like such an oversight…

Good news, you can start watching now:
http://smp.uq.edu.au/content/pitch-drop-experiment

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Also, the pitch drop should have been just one stage in a Rube Goldberg machine.

Think of The Long Now Foundation, building their 10,000 year clock. I want to start The Long Rube Foundation.

“It’s not a question of if as much as it’s a question of when and how.”

It’s mainly a question of if the rig manages to stay undisturbed long enough and the camera happens to be working when the event happens. Running multiple drips doesn’t help much with the first, but its huge for the second.

You know, actually they moved the ring up to get the drop to separate.

Its a failure!

The drop didn’t separate on its own. They raised the ring like a centimeter.

Oh well. Raise ring, wait another decade.

This is actually pretty much exactly why I decided not to be a scientist.

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