Date: 26/08/2013 12:34:19
From: Dropbear
ID: 378571
Subject: Pitch Drop Professor dies

I want to know more


Professor John Mainstone, the longtime custodian of the University of Queensland’s famous Pitch Drop experiment, has died after suffering a stroke.

For more than 50 years, Professor Mainstone monitored dripping tar from a glass funnel sitting in the lobby of the university’s physics department.

The experiment began in 1930 as a way for the late Professor Thomas Parnell to prove the liquid nature of a solid object at room temperature.

..

No-one, including Professor Mainstone who began his vigil in 1961, has ever seen a drop fall.

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Date: 26/08/2013 12:44:25
From: OCDC
ID: 378575
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Dropped off his perch, eh?

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Date: 26/08/2013 12:45:44
From: Dropbear
ID: 378576
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

to torture a cricket metaphor, the Pitch professor died from a stroke.

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Date: 26/08/2013 13:09:14
From: Michael V
ID: 378594
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

OCDC said:


Dropped off his perch, eh?
.

Or was he pitched off?

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Date: 26/08/2013 13:14:21
From: Riff-in-Thyme
ID: 378600
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Michael V said:


OCDC said:

Dropped off his perch, eh?
.

Or was he pitched off?

Somebody would have had to have seen him go for us to know

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Date: 26/08/2013 21:34:30
From: Rule 303
ID: 379000
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Dropbear said:

No-one, including Professor Mainstone who began his vigil in 1961, has ever seen a drop fall.

Have any drops fallen?

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Date: 26/08/2013 21:35:24
From: poikilotherm
ID: 379002
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Rule 303 said:


Dropbear said:
No-one, including Professor Mainstone who began his vigil in 1961, has ever seen a drop fall.

Have any drops fallen?

Yes. It’s been videoed since 2000 or some such.

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Date: 26/08/2013 21:36:48
From: Skunkworks
ID: 379005
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Rule 303 said:


Dropbear said:
No-one, including Professor Mainstone who began his vigil in 1961, has ever seen a drop fall.

Have any drops fallen?

Yes, twice I think. Video missed the first one.

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Date: 26/08/2013 21:38:22
From: Riff-in-Thyme
ID: 379007
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Skunkworks said:


Rule 303 said:

Dropbear said:
No-one, including Professor Mainstone who began his vigil in 1961, has ever seen a drop fall.

Have any drops fallen?

Yes, twice I think. Video missed the first one.

He waited for the ninth droplet to fall with eager ‘‘Pitch Drop junkies’’ along for the ride via webcam.
But he would forever be eluded by the mysterious pitch.

“Read more”: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/pitch-drop-professor-john-mainstone-dies-20130826-2skko.html#ixzz2d4dVBpTZ

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Date: 26/08/2013 21:47:01
From: dv
ID: 379016
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

I assume all of the good jokes about this have already been done.

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Date: 26/08/2013 22:00:57
From: Bubblecar
ID: 379027
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

At least he wasn’t waiting for glass to flow.

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Date: 26/08/2013 22:03:37
From: Stealth
ID: 379029
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Bubblecar said:


At least he wasn’t waiting for glass to flow.

Is the pitch flowing down or the glass funnel flowing up?

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Date: 26/08/2013 22:06:41
From: sibeen
ID: 379031
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

Rule, just pulled out of the oven a mixture of the recipe you provided the other day. I used bosenberries instead of peaches, as I had a can of them lollylagging in the back of the cupboard.

It’s more of a cake type mix than I was expecting.

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Date: 28/08/2013 16:31:58
From: Soso
ID: 380363
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

How long would we have to wait for a demonstration that pitch is Non-Newtonian?

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Date: 1/09/2013 09:44:28
From: MartinB
ID: 383181
Subject: re: Pitch Drop Professor dies

He was my first year physics lecturer.

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