LONGEST-RUNNING EXPERIMENTS KEEP GOING, GOING...
* Dripping, buzzing, and ticking for more than a century
* "Much worse than watching grass grow, or paint dry..."
-- J. Mainstone, emeritus professor
June 1, 2001 CAMBRIDGE, MA., USA -- Three of the world's longest-running -- and dullest -- scientific experiments are still dripping, buzzing, and ticking away, decades and centuries after they were begun.
It has been years since anyone checked on all three. The Annals of Improbable Research -- the science humor magazine better known as "AIR" -- did some detective work. The results are published in the magazine's May/June 2001, which is special issue devoted to "improbable physics."
GOO, BUZZER, CLOCK
In 1984, the "European Journal of Physics" published three remarkable reports, each describing a different experiment that had been continuing for decades. The youngest -- the pitch drop viscosity experiment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane -- had been started in 1927. The oldest -- the intermittently famous Oxford electric bell at Oxford University, was begun in 1840. The third experiment, the Beverly Clock at the University of Otago in Dunedin, was commenced in 1864.
The bell is driven by a long-lived chemical battery, the clock by daily atmospheric temperature-and-pressure fluctuation. The dark, slimy pitch, of course, is driven by gravity and retarded by its extremely high viscosity.
The excitement defies description. "Much worse than watching grass grow, or paint dry...," is the way U. Queensland physics professor emeritus John Mainstone described it.
The entire article is available on the AIR web site, at:http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i3/long-run-7-3.html
SOME PERTINENT TECHNICAL NOTES
1) The Oxford buzzer is fairly energy-efficient. It draws only about 1/10,000,000,000,000,000 as much power as the state of California.
2) The Otago pitch turns out to be about 100 billion times more viscous than water.
==========================OTHER IMPROBABLE PHYSICS:==========================
The "Long-Running Physics" article is part of AIR's special "Improbable Physics" issue. The issue also contains, among other newsworthy articles:
-- A Quantum Gravitational solution to the question: "How Many Angels Can Fit on the Head of a Pin?"
-- "Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass," a gritty account of the workaday life of a physics researcher
-- Nobel Laureate Douglas Osheroff reveals how much pizza he has eaten during his career
The entire table of contents is athttp://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i3/v7i3-toc.html
The "Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR) is a science humor magazine, and is also known as "the journal of record for inflated research and personalities." AIR also produces the Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. This year's Ig Nobel Ceremony -- the 11th First Annual -- will be held Thursday, October 4, at Harvard University.
============OTHER LINKS:============
A quantum gravity solution to the "Angels Dancing on a Pin" Problemhttp://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i3/angels-7-3.htm
Nobel Laureate Douglas Osheroff on pizzahttp://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i3/osheroff-7-3.html
The Ig Nobel Prize home page: http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-top.html
Annals of Improbable Research home page:http://www.improbable.com
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The science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) is published six times per year. A year's subscription costs $24.95 in the US, $28.95 in Canada and Mexico, and $41.95 elsewhere.
A free email newsletter, called mini-AIR, is available via the AIR web site.
PRESS CONTACT:MARC ABRAHAMS, EDITOR, ANNALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCHPO Box 380853, Cambridge MA 02238 USA617-491-4437FAX: 617-661-0927[email protected][email protected]www.improbable.com
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