Hmm, I'm guessing the pitch drop experiment...

(checks link).

Sigh.

tar, baby, tar

It's more a demonstration not an experiment.

whither_apophis: It's more a demonstration not an experiment.

This.

Let me guess... pinch loaf experiment?

(checks link)

Close enough

Who farking cares about this "experiment"?

The answer is 42, did they finally come up with the question?

Pitch drop?

7.5 million years, but then they had to go back and figure out what question got answered.

Too bad no respectable journal will publish the results of this experiment until their findings can be replicated.

Had no idea what this was referencing.

Took a completely random guess.

Nailed it.

/Better to be lucky than good?

desertmouse: I think the magical corn fields at the University of Illinois should get honorable mention. They're outside, so I guess they don't count.

That may have been the least informative Wikipedia article I have ever read.

236 years?

I don't think the pitch drop "experiment" is valid because they failed to control the temperature, but drewsclues has a point.

Pitch Drop has moved from science to art. It is the embodiment of scientific curiosity and is an artifact of humanity.

Yeah, subby, sorry but the geek tab is probably not the place to impress someone with this-
although it's cool, and congrats on your greenlight and all.
Put it on your Facebook page.

Wasn't there an experiment where a whole bunch of primal chemicals (like in the beginning of the earth) were dumped together in a sealed environment to see what happen.

And this has been going on for several decades as well.

Are you tired of the steady drip, drip, drip of Gonorrhea?

//too obscure?

Harry_Seldon: Are you tired of the steady drip, drip, drip of Gonorrhea?

//too obscure?

Then Peter Rooter's just the thing!

Awww you guys are too hipstery. I thought it was an interesting philosophical viewpoint, and a fun read.

Fark proves once again that some of us just aren't cool kids in the back of the bus. I'd never heard of this. then again, I hadn't heard about the longest burning light bulb either. I'll go back to the Foobies page in shame.

I thought it was going to be the "buried seeds can grow?" experiment. They were burying seeds in dry tubes, then digging them up and seeing if they grow after something like 40 years.

it is moving at the speed of light in relative terms, says the mountain...

Just think - he's almost halfway to his PhD!

/Grad student
//Bitter

I thought the interwebs was posed' to be fastar than magazines?

/read this 2 weeks ago in popular science
//doing my own lil' pitch drop test on the shiatter

ArkAngel: Let's see... pitch drop experiment?

(checks link)

Yep

came to say this...

The reason it's not an experiment is that it's not testing a hypothesis. It's a controlled measurement process.

Measuring the shear strength of bolts isn't an experiment, either (unless, for instance, you are a student specifically doing it to validate a stated hypothesis). Otherwise, it's manufacturing engineering. As is this.

Still cool, and sciencey.

Poor sap

whither_apophis: It's more a demonstration not an experiment.

Broom: The reason it's not an experiment is that it's not testing a hypothesis. It's a controlled measurement process.

Arguably there was a hypothesis, even if the outcome was known: that room-temperature bitumen was a liquid, not a solid. The scientific process is a-okay with duplication and confirmation -- actually, it needs it. They're still called experiments.

However, the "experiment" part of it ended as soon as the first drop fell, as that proved the hypothesis. Since then it really is more of an ongoing demonstration. I wouldn't call it a "measurement" because, as noted, it wasn't done in controlled conditions. Parnell didn't care when the first drop fell; only that it did.

Thing is, it's reached a level of cultural significance where it doesn't matter. Life is more interesting with the pitch drop experiment.

Agreed, dragonchild.

whither_apophis: It's more a demonstration not an experiment.

No, the hypothesis was, pitch is actually a very thick, slow moving liquid. To test this, we put some in a funnel, and let it do its thing for years. If after several years we observe movement consistent with the movement of liquids, including drawing down the glass tube, and forming droplets, then pitch is a liquid.

That's an experiment. Now, at this time, the experiment is done, we have our data, its NOW a demonstration, but its still an experiement.