Top 3 Longest Experiments.
The essence of science is to ask questions and conduct precise experiments to find the answers. Usually experiments are not carried out for too long, a maximum of several years, but some experiments last so long that the original question is almost forgotten, and the organizers of the experiment are no longer with us.
What are the longest scientific experiments? We are now going to tell you about the electric bell that will never go silent, sealed time capsules with weeds and a very viscous liquid, which takes about 10 years for one drop to fall. These are the three longest running experiments that are still ongoing.
3. Investigation of the flowability of pitch/bitumen
This long-term experiment is called: "The pitch drop experiment." In 1927, a professor at a university in Australia decided to demonstrate that pitch, aka bitumen, flows slowly but flows like a liquid, although it looks and visually "behaves" like a solid. The pitch actually flows, just really, really, very slowly. They took a large funnel filled with black pitch, which slowly drips into a glass for the experiment. The first drop fell eight years after the experiment began. And in 90 years, only eight more drops have fallen. Based on this data, scientists have found that pitch is 30 billion times more viscous than water. This means that it flows 30 billion times slower than water.
In the 1980s, scientists, having received the results, were about to end the experiment, but they were stopped by two factors. First, they realized that no one had actually seen exactly the drop of pitch falling. They simply found drops in the glass after they had fallen. And secondly, the pitch began to behave strangely. Previously, drops fell at approximately the same frequency, but the eighth drop fell after a longer break. It was formed in 2000, but there was a power outage and cameras did not record its fall. The ninth drop fell in 2014, and this time its fall was recorded. However, it seems that the pitch began to flow more slowly and scientists do not know why this is happening. Therefore, the observation continues and there is hope that it will explain many aspects associated with other very viscous materials, for example, plastic and silicone.
2. Investigation of the vitality of weeds
Weeds are the hardest to deal with in the garden. Sometimes it seems that it is impossible to win a battle with them, and this is because many weeds can hibernate for a long time right at the surface of the soil. Now you smugly think that you got rid of them, when suddenly they are everywhere again. There have been many studies in which scientists have tried to understand how long weeds can hide in the soil. The longest such experiment is buried at the University of Michigan. This slow science experiment consists of five (remaining) whiskey bottles filled with sand and buried in secret locations. This is the botanical heritage of William James Beal.
In 1879, he filled 20 bottles with 21 weed seeds and wet sand, and then buried them upside down to keep water out. He planned to dig up one bottle every five years and check which seeds survived. This was the original plan, but in 1919 there were early autumn frosts and it was impossible to dig out a bottle with a simple shovel. Therefore, scientists waited until 1920, and only then dug up the eighth bottle. Then they decided to increase the interval between digging the next bottles up to 10 years. In 1990, the scientists who inherited control over the experiment did not start digging out the next (15th) bottle, but again increased the interval, now up to 20 years. Thus, the same 15th bottle was dug up only in 2000, and at that time there were 5 more buried bottles. This means that if the interval is not increased again, then the last bottle will be removed in 2100.
When scientists planted seeds from a bottle dug in 2000, only two species of plants sprouted. This is approximately what scientists expected, since there were more than three types of viable seeds only in a bottle dug out in 1930. But researchers are wondering if the seeds of the toughest species will sprout when the next bottles are taken out. However, the purpose of the experiment has now changed slightly. Researchers are no longer interested in how long weeds can survive. Scientists want to know what exactly the secret of the vitality of the most resistant seeds is.
1. Oxford electric bell
Most modern batteries are designed to last about 5 years, but there is a battery/accumulator at Oxford University that has been around since 1840 to this day. At the same time, no one knows why it has been working for so long. In 1840, one of the Oxford physics teachers bought an outlandish device consisting of two long, gray-coated cylinders connected to two bells. A metal ball vibrates between the bells and is set in motion by the charge of batteries, which are of the dry cell type. In them, unlike modern batteries, the electrolyte, that is, a substance that conducts a charge, is a paste, not liquid. The bell was created just 40 years after the invention of the first batteries. Its power supply was expected to last about 4 or 5 years. It's amazing that it has been in operation for almost two centuries.
It is not known for sure what the initial essence of the experiment with this electric bell was, and whether it was an experiment at all or just a demonstration. However, at this point, physicists would be happy to know how the power supply in this bell works, but, unfortunately, the cylinders are sealed, and the technical documentation has long been lost.
However, there are several considerations. The fact is that other dry batteries created at that time consist of many metal discs stacked on top of each other and filled with sulfur. On the one hand, the discs are coated with zinc sulfate, on the other hand, with manganese dioxide. Today zinc sulfate is more commonly used as a bioactive food additive, but manganese dioxide is still used in dry cell batteries. In the past, we have somehow managed to make batteries last incredibly long. However, until we open the cylinders of the Oxford Bell, we will not know how everything works there. Scientists are in no hurry to open the bell. First, they want to know how long it will last, but as soon as it stops working, physicists will quickly perform an autopsy on it.
