A lecture about an experiment
Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
In today's lecture we're going to be talking about experiments, and I thought it might be interesting for you all to learn about the world's oldest continuously running laboratory experiment that is still going today. In fact, it holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest-running experiment. This experiment began in 1927 and has been going ever since.
It's called the 'pitch drop' experiment and it was created by Professor Thomas Parnell at the University of Queensland, Australia. Parnell was the university's first physics professor, and he wanted to show in this experiment that everyday materials, such as pitch, can have quite surprising properties.
You see, when pitch is at room temperature, it feels solid. You can easily break it with a hammer. However, it isn't in fact solid. At room temperature, pitch is many billions of times more viscous than water, but it's actually fluid.
In 1927, Professor Parnell took a sample of pitch. He heated it and poured it into a glass funnel. He allowed the pitch to cool and settle – for three years. He then turned the funnel upside down and cut the top off it.
Since then, the pitch has slowly dropped out of the funnel. How slowly? Well, the first drop took eight years to fall. It took another forty years for another five drops to fall. Today it's been almost 90 years since the experiment started. Only nine drops have fallen from the funnel. The last drop fell in April 2014 and the next one is expected to fall in the 2020s.
The experiment has a tragic story associated with it. Professor Parnell died without seeing a pitch drop. His replacement, Professor John Mainstone, became responsible for the pitch drop experiment from 1961. He held the job for 52 years, and missed seeing the drop fall three times – by a day in 1977, by just five minutes in 1988 and finally in 2000, when the webcam that was recording the experiment suffered a power outage for 20 minutes, during which time the pitch dropped.
The pitch drop experiment is something we can all participate in now. There's a live web stream that allows anyone to watch the glass funnel and wait for the fateful moment. A similar experiment to the Queensland pitch drop was set up in Dublin, and the video of the moment the pitch actually dropped went viral on the internet. It's interesting to see how a very slow event can spread news so quickly.
I heard about the Milgram Experiment a long time ago. The objective of this study was investigate to what extent people obeys orders when they are in a hierarchical situation. In the experiment, one person had electrical cables attached to their body. In another room, someone received orders to give electric shocks to that person. The instructions changed over time: the participant had to increase the voltage more and more. Although the participant didn't know it, the shocks were fake. Unfortunately, many people obeyed because the orders came from an authority figure. The experiment tried to explain what happens in war situations - why people obey orders they don't agree with simply because they come from someone "above".
The stanford Marshmallow experiment was a 1970s psychology study by Walter Mischel.
Kids were offered a marshmallow, if they waited (15-20 minutes), they´d get a second one. The test measured self-control and delayed gratification. Kids who waited tended to do better in life. It´s linked to life outcomes and self-control strategies.
I wonder if someone could help me to clarify the statement about Professor John Mainstone in task one. How can I draw a conclusion that Professor John Mainstone never saw the pitch drop？
Hello mount buzhou,
Although it is not explicitly stated that Mainstone never saw the pitch drop, I think it is very heavily implied. We know that Mainstone was in charge of the experiment for 52 years starting in 1961. Therefore, his term ran from 1961 to 2013. We know that there was a pitch drop in 2014, which was after his time in charge. We know he missed three other drops and it would be very strange to say that he missed three drops and not mention seeing one before that, so the implication is very strong indeed.
Quite apart from that, when you look at the question one of the options is clearly false, so by a process of elimination you can work out that the others must be true.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello There ,
Its my first time participating in like that courses and preparation lectures, I found this topic quite interesting.
I hope i will find more similar topics .
With the best wishes,
Iyad Boussahel
Hello, there! I think it's not quite correct that you should write '2020s' and can't write twenty twenties in task 2, line 4. How do you think?
I'd like to tell about 'Acali experiment' - the experiment started by some Mexican scientist to investigate interpersonal relationships in conditions of limited space and isolation. I like this experiment because it's members showed restraint towards agression despite scientist was trying to create conflicts. It makes me belive in humanity. There is even the film based on this story.
Hello Safe_Mode,
Thank you for pointing this out. We've corrected the exercise so it now accepts both answers.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Do you know of any other famous experiments? What are they?
Actually, I don't know any other famous experiments, also this experiment was first listen to me.
I heard Schrödinger's cat in Quantum Physics but didn't know in detail.
Anyway, I shocked my score at Task2 (just ZERO!!). when I clicked "Submit" button and saw zero, I just was at my wit's end.
How can I increasing listening skill for me in short duration?
i have so bad marks
pre 2/8
task1 1/6
task2 2/6
that terrible
You should consider practicing a lower-level task.