Since modern times, human beings have been on the road of scientific exploration, sleeping and forgetting to eat for the study of various truths or phenomena. In the eyes of the public, scientific research is often serious and boring, and it is the process and conclusion of countless serious researchers day and night.
Of course, this is indeed true, but "the world is big and there is nothing strange", and the boring and monotonous scientific research in the eyes of ordinary people actually has many interesting points, even jaw-dropping or even laughable research.
Asphalt drip experiments to prove what?
Asphalt is not uncommon in our daily life, it is mainly black, usually used in coatings, rubber and other industrial fields, due to its waterproof and anti-corrosion properties, asphalt is also used to lay on the road surface, highways are a lot of asphalt pavement.
Through research, scientists have found that asphalt is actually a black-brown high-viscosity organic liquid, but in our view, asphalt is more like a solid, it is not like water will be scattered around, will not be fragile to a touch on the "broken", asphalt has a more fixed form, hand touch can feel the obvious hardness and shape.
That's why Professor Thomas Parnell, when he was teaching his students, wanted to show them that matter wasn't what it showed—asphalt appeared to be solid, but in essence it was a highly viscous liquid.
It's just that asphalt in the daily temperature conditions, the rate between molecules is very slow, but it is not a solid after all, even if the flow rate is slow, once the time is extended, asphalt will one day condense into a drop.
For this purpose, Professor Thomas Parnell placed a sample of high-temperature heated asphalt in an uncut funnel in 1927 and left it to stand for three years.
After the asphalt had been sufficiently solidified and no other reactions would occur, in 1930 Professor Thomas Parnell cut the seal again, set up the funnel filled with asphalt with a metal frame, and put a beaker at the bottom to catch the bitumen dripping from the seal.
After all, if the asphalt is solid, then it is bound to be impossible to drip, if the asphalt flows slowly, it will naturally prove that it is actually a liquid. Yes, this asphalt drip experiment is so simple and the purpose is so simple that Professor Thomas Parnell simply wants to prove to his students that the appearance and essence of matter are not consistent.
Asphalt drip experiment process
Professor Thomas Parnell's idea is very good, after all, "seeing is believing", any scientific conclusion needs real data as evidence to support, he also tries to make students able to witness the facts with their own eyes, rather than following the teacher's script, for students, this will also be a very beneficial experience.
It's just that the students don't pay too much attention to this, after all, this is only a small experiment, it can only be used to prove an established scientific knowledge, can not find new conclusions, can not bring them novelty, but Professor Thomas Parnell is very serious about this experiment.
After the funnel seal was cut open in 1930, the asphalt was indeed slowly flowing out, forming a "water droplet" that would not fall and condense more and more over time.
By 1938, Professor Thomas Parnell's students had changed several batches, but they had all been led by the professor to record the data related to the asphalt and analyze the flow of the asphalt at 20 °C.
In this year, the asphalt has been "ready" to drip, professor Thomas Parnell even invited the students who participated in the early work of the asphalt, but because the time has passed too long, these students are already in the north and south of the world, many people are no longer engaged in scientific experiments, there is no interest in this, so there are not too many people.
Finally, in December 1938, after a long wait of 8 years and 11 months, the first drop of asphalt of the asphalt drip experiment fell into the beaker, professor Thomas Parnell was very excited, but the only person who discovered this phenomenon was Professor Thomas Parnell himself, there was no "audience" other than him, and there was no instrument or equipment to record it.
The second bitumen drip occurred in February 1947, that is, nine years later, Professor Thomas Parnell had been prepared, but he did not expect that he missed the time of the accident and the dripping, and only saw the second drop of asphalt fall into the beaker.
Originally, Professor Thomas Parnell was ready to witness the process of the third drop of asphalt again, but the process of this experiment took too long, each experiment basically took about 10 years, and a human being can generally live 100 years is already considered an advanced age, not to mention that Professor Thomas Parnell's age is not small.
Therefore, Professor Thomas Parnell did not wait for the third drop of asphalt to land, and unfortunately passed away. The asphalt drip experiment itself was not taken seriously, and if it were not for Professor Thomas Parnell's insistence, it might have been thrown into the garbage heap long ago, and after the death of the professor, the asphalt drip experiment was naturally shelved, and basically no one thought of the experiment. The third drop of asphalt also fell into the beaker in April 1954 and was not discovered.
Successor to the experiment
It wasn't until 1961 that Professor John Mehnston came to Professor Thomas Parnell's university and accidentally discovered this strange scientific device and became curious about it.
After being explained by others, Professor John Meenston did not feel disappointed, nor did he pay any attention to the asphalt drip experiment as the general public, but instead continued the research of the asphalt drip experiment by inheriting the legacy of Professor Thomas Parnell.
bitumen
Of course, the third drop had already dripped before Professor John Mehnston arrived, and he could only begin to observe the dripping of the fourth drop of asphalt. Regrettably, however, seeing that the asphalt was about to fall, Professor John Meenston waited for a long time and still did not see it land, just when he harvested his love, the two went on a honeymoon together, and when they returned, they found that the asphalt had fallen in the beaker, probably in May 1962.
This upset Professor John Meenston and deduced the time frame in which the fifth drop of asphalt fell, deciding to witness its fall.
Who would have thought that from now on, fate seems to have fallen in love with Professor John Meenston, from the year he accepted it in 1961, to the 2013 year of his death, the asphalt drip experiment dripped a total of 5 drops, but Professor John Meenston was not lucky enough to miss it.
For example, in 1977, Professor John Mehnston spent two days on the weekend in order to be able to see the asphalt fall, but when he was tired and went home to rest, the asphalt "took the opportunity" to fall. In 1988, the seventh drop of asphalt was nearing the stage of falling, and Professor John Meenston also vowed that he would witness the fall of the asphalt this time.
But the goddess of destiny was not on Professor John Meynston's side, and as he went out for a cup of coffee, in just five minutes, the seventh drop of asphalt fell in an instant, once again becoming Professor John Meenston's regret.
In 2000, with the development of society and technology, human beings have a variety of equipment and instruments, Professor John Meenston in order to completely record the moment of asphalt falling, specially installed a network camera next to the asphalt drip experiment, so as to avoid missing the asphalt fall again.
However, when the eighth drop of asphalt fell, Professor John Meenston was just outside, and the tropical storm caused the city to lose power for 20 minutes, so although the camera equipment was assumed, it was relatively well prepared, but under the influence of nature, the eighth bitumen still could not be seen by Professor John Meenston.
Professor John Meenston predicted that the ninth drop of asphalt would drip in 2014, but he did not have the opportunity to actually witness the asphalt drip experiment – in August 2013, Professor John Meenston died of a stroke.
Unseen asphalt
Such a story has to lament the creation of fate, from Professor Thomas Parnell began to carry out asphalt drip experiments in 1927, until now in 2022, the time has passed 95 years, this longest and longest experiment in human history has still not been recorded by humans at the moment of asphalt landing.
One might want to ask, isn't there still a ninth drop of asphalt in 2014? Yes, on April 20, 2014, the ninth drop of asphalt did fall, but dramatically, this drop could have been recorded by humans, but White, the third generation administrator of the experiment after Professor John Meenston, found that this drop of asphalt had not fallen for a long time, and finally found that something was wrong.
It turned out that the asphalt drip experiment had lasted too long, and there were already eight drops of asphalt in the beaker, resulting in the bottom being piled too high and the ninth drop of asphalt being "blocked".
In order to run the experiment normally, White planned to replace the beaker and take a new cup over, but accidentally ripped off the ninth drop of asphalt. Yes, the ninth drop of asphalt that humans have been waiting for for 13 years and 6 months is gone.
White said the asphalt drip experiment will take at least another 80 years, and based on the timing and speed of the ninth drop of asphalt, the tenth drop of bitumen may be dripping in 2027.
In order not to miss this drop of asphalt, the relevant personnel even created a special website to provide people around the world with live broadcasts to witness the asphalt dripping. In fact, in addition to this asphalt drip experiment that lasted for nearly a century, Trinity College also had an asphalt drip experiment, but they were lucky enough to photograph the process of asphalt dripping at about 17:00 on July 11, 2013, which was the first scientific experiment in human history to photograph the moment of asphalt dripping.