Millikan Oil Drop Experiment

Below you will find a list of hopefully useful information to prepare for your experiment. The Preparation Questions will have to be answered satisfactorily by you before you can start your experiment.
Planning an experiment is more than half of doing it. Please also log your preparatory steps and planning calculations carefully. You should consult books, the Internet, and equipment manuals to find the information needed to plan and successfully conduct your experiment.

Physics Keywords

Stoke's law, electron charge, gravitational force

Major Equipment Components

parallel plate capacitor, microscope, stopwatch

Preparation Questions

What physical process is limiting the useful time you have to observe a particular oil drop?

How can you change the charge of a particular drop while it is in the chamber?

Tip

Use as little oil as possible during the experiment: To much oil will lead to confusion of droplets and clog up the chamber.

Results to be reported

electron charge

Kai Martens

Last modified: Mon Jan 27 23:02:13 MST 2003