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This experiment first described by [Millikan, 1913] is based on the fact that different forces act on an electrically charged oil drop moving in the homogeneous electric field of a plate capacitor (Figure 1).
We have reanalyzed Millikan's 1913 data on oil drops to examine the evidence for charge quantization and for fractional residual charge.
Oil drop experiment. Robert A. Millikan.. (1909). q=1.5924(17)×10−19 C. Shot noise experiment. First proposed by Walter H. Schottky. In terms of the Avogadro constant and Faraday constant. =. F-Faraday constant, NA - Avagadro constant.
In this experiment you will use tiny droplets of oil. When these droplets fall under the influence of gravity it takes them only a few milliseconds to reach a terminal (constant) speed vf, where the downward force of gravity is balanced by the upward drag force from the air.
The Millikan oil drop experiment, published in final form in 1913, demonstrated that charge comes in discrete chunks and was a bridge between classical electromagnetism and modern quantum physics.
The experiment is one of the most fundamental of the experiments in the undergraduate laboratory. The experimental apparatus is patterned after the original apparatus, made and used by R.A. Millikan to show that electric charge exists as integral multiples of “e” the charge on a single electron.
Millikan's oil drop experiment consisted essentially of putting tiny charged oil droplets in a known electric field and studying their response to it. The best choice for the electric field is of course a uniform field, hence Millikan employed a condenser with planar and parallel plates.
