Started in 1927, this is one of the longest continuously running experiments. The idea is to show that pitch is actually a liquid and in the 82 years since the pitch has been allowed to run out, there have been 8 drops. The ninth is ready to fall anytime but that could still take a few months more.
So when do you think it will drop? The drop seems to have changed over the last week and given the average time to fall? I’m going to go out on a limb and say this month. So take a guess and check onthis webpageto watch the exciting action of a pitch drop dropping.
Besides the air conditioning change, I would imagine that as drops fall, removing mass from the upper container, that the downward pressure due to gravity would lessen and the time between drops lengthen.
From every other picture it appears that the drops coalesce before the next one falls but the 8th one seems no where near to coalescing. Dr. Mainstone has mentioned that one problem is that there will soon not be enough room for the drops to fall.
I would imagine that global warming would have the opposite effect. unless you consider the addition of air conditioning as being due to it getting too hot.
Viscosity is dependent on the material’s temperature but it isn’t necessarily a simple relation. Typically the colder something is the more viscous it tends to be
See - Pouring of cold maple syrup vs warm maple syrup: Journal of Experimental Breakfasts, 1996.
No, not at all, but if it is strike three, the runner gets to try to run to first unless there is a runner already there or if there are already two out.