National Pitch Tar Drop Event

22 November 2024

A National Pitch Tar Drop event is launching on Wednesday 27th November 2024. The Trinity School of Physics Pitch Tar Drop demonstration is currently one of only three such experiments in the world with the team last capturing footage of the pitch tar drop in Trinity College Dublin in 2013.

The Pitch Tar Drop demonstration in the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin began in October 1944, beginning what is now an 80 year continuously running demonstration. While appearing solid at room temperature, the pitch tar flows very slowly with a drop falling from the end of the funnel approximately once in a decade. The most recent drop fell unobserved in 2024. It will be another decade before the demonstration will drip again so the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin as part of their 2024 Tercentenary Celebrations and in Association with AMBER Centre and the Institute of Physics are hosting an All-Island Pitch Tar Drop Event.

Schools across Ireland will participate in the experiment in which they have been provided with a kit that uses a specially developed pitch tar, which has a lower viscosity than the Trinity demonstration, so we won’t have to wait 10 years. In this national experiment students will see seemingly solid materials flow, be able to measure the formation of the drop, calculate the viscosity and perhaps even capture that special moment when the drop falls. The participants will be part of history!

Hosted by Louise Bradley, physicist and Professor in TCD, the launch takes place on Wednesday 27th November 2024. She will be joined by Stefan Hutzler who in 2013 alongside Shane Bergin captured a drop falling in Trinity College Dublin, becoming the first to record this rare moment. The time-lapse video  attracted global media attention at the time with Discover Magazine naming the Trinity Pitch Drop in their top 100 science stories of 2013 and a feature article in Nature News the 3rd most-read piece on their website in 2013. In recognition of its global fame the pitch tar demonstration had been on display in the Eavan Boland Library since 2014 but returned to its permanent home in the School of Physics in time for the tercentenary.

Professor Louise Bradley said: ‘This experiment is a fantastic example of citizen science and making STEM tangible and accessible. This experiment’s longevity and being only one of three in the world also gives participants the opportunity to be part of history.’

This National Experiment will culminate in a Shared Learning Day on 27th March 2025. The event will be hosted by the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin and AMBER on Thursday 27th March 2025 in Trinity College Dublin. Teachers from participating schools will bring two students from their school who will have contributed to the preparation of a scientific poster demonstrating the observations and outcomes of their own pitch tar experiments in the schools.

Full details available on the official webpage here

The capture of the 2013 Pitch Tar Drop in the School of Physics Trinity College Dublin: