DESIGNED FOR TEACHING: The Millikan oil drop

Abstract

Learning physics at school is likely to be a much more exciting process than it used to be. Not only are syllabuses becoming more appropriate to the atomic age, but apparatus is now available for repeating, easily, many of the classical experiments that helped the growth of atomic concepts during the first half of this century. For example, in 1909, R. A. Millikan began a series of experiments that showed electricity to be particulate, i.e. that an electrical charge is composed of an integral number of small, equal basic charges. He was able to obtain a value for this, which is the charge carried by an electron.

Citation

Merry, C.A. (1965), "DESIGNED FOR TEACHING: The Millikan oil drop", Education + Training, Vol. 7 No. 9, pp. 418-418. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb015623