The dripping asphalt experiment looks simple, but it has not been done for 92 years, why?

Friends who have done experiments will know that ordinary experiments can either be completed in the end or prove to be incomplete, and there is no experiment that has no results. This kind of experiment does exist in history, and the steps and principles of the whole experiment are simple, but 92 years have not yet ended. This is known as the "asphalt dripping experiment".

First, let's understand what bitumen is. We often say that asphalt is the raw material of asphalt roads. Every city in China has asphalt roads.

Bitumen is just an abbreviation. It chemically refers to a mixture of hydrocarbons of different molecular weights. This mixture is highly viscous, which is a big reason why people use it for paving.

In addition, bitumen also has a strict classification, namely coal tar bitumen, natural bitumen, and petroleum bitumen. These three types of bitumen have different purities, so their applications are also different.

Then let's talk about the "asphalt dripping experiment", which has lasted for 92 years and still has no results. Professor Thomas Parnell of Australia led the experiment. It is understood that Thomas originally conducted this experiment to prove to students that the properties of matter cannot be judged by appearances.

At first, he thought it was a relatively simple experiment. The last one was 92 years, but so far nothing has been achieved. An important reason why Thomas chose asphalt as the experimental material was that asphalt is very viscous.

According to scientific research, bitumen is 100 billion times more viscous than water, if not more. How did this experiment work? He prepared a beaker, put a piece of filter paper in the opening of the beaker, poured the bitumen into the filter paper, and finally made a hole in the lower end of the filter paper, and waited for when the bitumen would fall.

All the students thought that the asphalt would soon fall to the bottom of the beaker under the influence of gravity on Earth, even Thomas himself. However, it turned out that their idea was wrong. The bitumen in the filter paper did not drip for a long time, which ended up completely breaking the patience of all experimenters.

Finally, although asphalt has declined in 92 years, few people have witnessed this process. Later, scientists placed cameras around the test site to capture the moment the asphalt dripped.

The bitumen drip experiment began in 1927 by scientists from the University of Queensland, where the bitumen was heated and then placed in a sealing funnel for three years, and then the bottom of the sealing funnel was cut open and the bitumen dripped slowly. All that remains is observation, but due to the extremely viscous nature of the asphalt, it took almost nine years for the first drip to fall. It stands to reason that the asphalt dripped down, which also confirmed the conjecture at the time, and the experiment should have ended here, but after all, it was a pity that I didn't see the wonderful moment of dripping with my own eyes.

The original purpose is for teaching purposes, the process is also very simple, the purpose is to prove to students the properties of matter, although some objects appear to be solid, but in fact they are liquids, but its viscosity is very large, the most typical representative is bitumen, this substance flows very slowly at room temperature, the viscosity is hundreds of billions of times that of water, but with the passage of time, it will eventually form droplet-like drips, but this time may consume about 10 years. This was the beginning of the experiment, which is still going on today, but unfortunately nine drops have not been recorded, this time at the University of Queensland in Australia. <>

Although the dripping asphalt experiment may seem insignificant, it contributes to the curious spirit of scientific inquiry, and the dedication and duration to it make the asphalt experiment one of the most famous. In 2005, Main Stone and the late Professor Parnell were awarded the Funny Nobel Prize in Physics. <>

The Funny Nobel Prize is a parody of the Nobel Prize, held each autumn to celebrate unusual and insignificant scientific achievements. The purpose of the Funny Nobel Prize is not to ridicule, but to respect the curious imagination of scientists. So, the dripping asphalt experiment definitely deserves such recognition.

Guinness World Records also lists this experiment as the longest lasting experiment in the world.

This is because although this experiment looks simple, it is difficult to operate in practice.

It may be because it is actually more difficult to deal with the elemental substances in it.

Because there are some details that are difficult to grasp, it is said that there will be such a phenomenon.

The biggest reason is probably because there are so many deeper things that need to be studied.

In 1927, Professor Parnell created this experiment to prove that bitumen could exhibit quite amazing properties. Professor Parnell heats a sample of bitumen, pours it into a sealed glass funnel and waits for the bitumen to settle. Three years later, in 1930, Parnell thought the substance had cooled and stabilized, and he cut the funnel handle.

Then, the asphalt starts dripping at a very slow rate.

<> asphalt slowly dripped out of the funnel, so slowly that the first drop was dropped eight years later. 87 years after the funnel was cut, only 9 drops fell. The last drop was in April 2014, and the next drop is expected sometime in the 2020s.

Bitumen is a complex organic mixture liquid, mainly composed of hydrocarbons of different molecular weights, with an unusually thick black and brown appearance, which is mainly used in the production of plastics, rubber, paints, etc., and for road paving. Asphalt pavement is the most common and is also known as asphalt pavement.

The scientists wanted to measure the viscosity of this extremely thick material by dropping it, and they wanted to record the moment the asphalt fell. Of course, this experiment is not of great scientific significance, but its durability is remarkable, and you just have to wait for a drop of asphalt to fall and you can visually prove that asphalt is not a solid but a liquid. Thomas Parnell, a professor of physics, in 1927, in a lecture, described how liquids and solids were sometimes not so distinct, and thus began the dripping experiment with bitumen, a seemingly complex mixture of liquids, but in fact solid bitumen, which began with his dripping experiments for the past 90 years.

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It is because this experiment has not yet obtained results, in order to verify whether asphalt is liquid or solid, the fluidity of this substance is relatively poor, it can present a solid state under fixed conditions, it can present a liquid state, but under the action of extrusion, it can become a liquid and flow down, the flow speed is relatively slow, and it will be affected by the movement of plates.

Because with the development of science and technology in China, we need to make continuous progress and continuous experiments, so that our technology is higher, the effect is better, the degree of pollution to the environment is smaller, and the scientific research strength is stronger.

This is because this experiment is very necessary to be carried out, and at the same time, if successful, it can have a very large development and innovation, and then it is also a pursuit of science, so this kind of experiment is still going on.

Because there are some things that need to be verified all the time, and it looks like it's turning, but the end result may be different.

Because scientists want to detect the viscosity through this kind of experiment, and this time can really bring a lot of material.

The reason for the famous "dripping asphalt" experiment is still going on from 1927 to the present day: in the field of research, the scientific community has not really defined the state of asphalt. In order to study whether asphalt is liquid or solid, scientists deliberately conducted experiments for more than 100 years.

Experiments have proved that bitumen is a liquid, and this experiment has been carried out in order to further study the chemical properties of bitumen, and it represents the scientist's dedication to the field of research. A scientist from Australia, starting in 1972, has been conducting an experiment at the university. To prove whether bitumen is solid or liquid, the scientist put bitumen into an hourglass and began a century-long experiment.

It was not until the first drop of asphalt dripping from the hourglass that it was admitted that the asphalt was a liquid and it caused a sensation at the time.

1. The reason why this experiment has been going on is because of the chemical properties of the asphalt, so it is still going on today

In fact, once it was proved that asphalt is a liquid, this scientific research should have stopped. However, scientists are still conducting this experiment in order to study the chemical properties of asphalt in order to find out how it differs from other substances.

2. The "dripping asphalt" experiment has been going on since 1927, and the reason why this experiment has been carried out is that in order to prove that asphalt is a liquid, scientists have spent a hundred years doing an experiment, which represents the progress in the field of science, and also represents the scientists' dedication to research

Thomas Parnell, a professor at an Australian university, proposed that bitumen is a liquid, and began to do this experiment in 1927. In his lifetime, he saw three drops of asphalt fall, and the experiment caused a sensation throughout the scientific community. This experiment represents the infinity of the field of science, and the pursuit of science has been going on, so this experiment is still being carried out today.

So, are you interested in conducting an experiment that lasts more than ten years?

The famous "dripping asphalt" experiment has been going on since 1927, but it doesn't have much significance in itself, it just proves that asphalt is a liquid. But there is a lot of hidden meaning behind this experiment, and it is precisely because of the uncertainty of this experiment that this experiment can bring us a lot of fun. If you are lucky enough to see a drop of asphalt fall down in your life, I think it is also a very happy thing.

And watching the asphalt fall, like our lives, has a strong unpredictability. <>

The surface of bitumen is very hard, asphalt meets all our perception of solids, but in fact asphalt is not a solid, but an organic liquid with a very high viscosity. So how viscous is this liquid, asphalt is 200 billion times more viscous than water. When Thomas Parnell, a professor of physics in Australia, did this experiment, it was to warn students not to trust their instincts, seeing that sometimes it is not necessarily true, and the truth is actually hidden behind the surface.

Parnell had been preparing for this experiment for three years, and after calculation, he thought that the asphalt should drop one drop in about 10 years, and he should be able to witness the asphalt dripping in his lifetime, but in fact the asphalt did drop three drops in the more than 30 years between his experiment and his death, but none of the drops were witnessed by Professor Parnell himself. After Professor Parnell's death, the experiment was forgotten by others until a man named Main Stone appeared and restarted the project. <>

In fact, the project itself does not have a very strong scientific significance, only to prove that asphalt is a liquid, but because asphalt is very similar to a solid, it is actually a liquid, which proves that we must prove the conclusion through practice, and not just believe what our eyes can see. This experiment has been going on for almost 100 years, and behind it is not just to prove that bitumen is a liquid, but a kind of perseverance and scientific rigor.

Because these scientists want to know whether the asphalt can drip down after solidifying, that is, by its viscosity.

Mainly because there was a discussion about whether asphalt was liquid or solid.

Because this experiment has not been successful until now, and there is still a lot of controversy about this experiment, it will persist until now.

This is because such experiments are very valuable and have been used to this day, and they are very useful.

Mainly because some scientists wanted to prove that asphalt was a liquid and not a solid, so the experiment lasted for nearly 100 years.

Because the scientific community has not found a definition of asphalt from the beginning to the end, it needs to be studied all the time.

This was done primarily to prove that bitumen is actually liquid, and so many years of experiments have indeed proved this thesis.

The original purpose of this experiment was for Professor Thomas Panel to prove to the students that bitumen appears to be solid, but is essentially a very viscous liquid, and that the asphalt drop addition experiment is also that bitumen is essentially a liquid. In addition, the experiment itself can record the speed and flow state of the asphalt dripping at room temperature. In 1927, the Australian Queensland panel put a sample of bitumen into a sealing funnel, and three years later, in 1930, the cutting funnel seal began to flow slowly through the bitumen.

But the camera missed the most recent drop in 2000. It takes about 10 years for a drop of asphalt to drip into a beaker under the funnel, and two scientific instruments, Beverly and Oxford Electronics, had done the same experiments before Professor Panel. <>

The atmospheric conditions under which the asphalt dripping experiment was carried out were not particularly controlled at first, so the viscosity of the asphalt changed with the change in temperature, however, after the seventh drop of asphalt fell in 1988, the researchers began to install air conditioning in the experimental field to regulate the indoor temperature. The laboratory temperature remains constant and the temperature is stable, which prolongs the time for each drop of asphalt to drip from the funnel. With the progress of human science and technology, more and more materials have become the necessities of people's daily life.

In addition to the substances that nature is gradually exploring, there are many that are synthesized. However, regardless of the method used, substances are generally marked with gaseous, solid, liquid, and other forms of attribution. <>

However, asphalt is not, and before the 30s of the 20th century, there was no clear understanding of whether asphalt was solid or liquid. Therefore, Professor Thomas Panel from the University of Queensland in Australia specially conducted the world-famous asphalt drip leaching experiment. It is also currently the longest physical experiment in the world.

In 2005, he won the "Funny Nobel" Prize in Physics. Currently, this experiment is being conducted by Professor John May Anton. In October 2005, he and the late Professor Parnell were awarded the "Funny Nobel" Prize in Physics for this experiment.

Recording of asphalt dripping from the funnel ended at 5 a.m. on July 11, 2013. <