Robert+Millikan(DD)


 * __Robert Millikan__**



date of birth: March 22nd1868 date of death: December 19th1953 country of origin:Morrison, Illinois

· He was born on the 22nd of March, 1868, in Morrison, Illinois · His grandparents had come to America before 1750, and were pioneer settlers in the Middle West. · He attended Maquoketa High School in Iowa, then worked for a short time as a court reporter · From there he went to Oberlin College and then got his Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University in 1895 · He then went from university to university teaching all around Europe, discovering numerous things in his experiments along the way · The discovery that was his most famous was when he discovered the charge and mass of an electron in his oil drop experiment

· Robert Millikan discovered the charge and mass of an electron · First, Millikan had oil drops falling through a chamber and wait until they reached terminal velocity · By using a microscope, he measured their terminal velocity, then in turn by using a formula found out their mass · Next he filled the same chamber with X-rays, to ionize the particles, which basically means to lose electrons · Then some became negatively charged and he created a magnetic field within the chamber by attaching a battery · By adjusting the voltage till the force of electric field balanced with the force of gravity, the oil droplets would suspend in air · With this knowledge he used a few formulas and found the charge of an electron and Robert won the Nobel Peace Prize for this in 1923