@TCDPhysics
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@AMBERCentre
The Physics department at CCS are participating in the all-island Physics 300 Pitch Tar Drop Experiment being hosted by the School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin and AMBER. The launch went online on November 27th at 11am, and the plug was removed by Ms Joanne Doherty at 11.30am, along with other schools across the island of Ireland.
Background
The Pitch Tar Drop demonstration in the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, became a 69 year overnight global sensation in 2013. The pitch tar was placed in the funnel in the School of Physics in October 1944, beginning what is now an 80 year continuously running demonstration. While appearing solid at room temperature, the pitch tar flows very slowly with a drop falling from the end of the funnel approximately once in a decade.
The University of Queensland had missed filming their drop falling in 2000. Prof. John Mainstone looked after the University of Queensland experiment for 52 years without ever seeing a drop fall. The Aberystwth University pitch-drop experiment is even older. It was started in 1914, but the pitch used is much more viscous and has not yet formed a drop. In 2013 Shane Bergin and Stefan Hutzler captured a drop falling in Trinity, becoming the first to record this rare moment. The most recent drop fell unobserved in 2024. We will have to wait another decade before the Trinity demonstration will drip again.
Experiment
The apparatus uses a specially developed pitch tar, which has a lower viscosity than the Trinity demonstration in 1944, so we won’t have to wait 10 years for a drop to fall. In this experiment students will see a seemingly solid material flow, be able to measure the formation of the drop, calculate the viscosity and perhaps even capture that special moment when the drop falls.
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