Since Robert Millikan discovered the quantization of electric charge and measured its fundamental value over 90 years ago, his oil-drop experiment has become essential in physics laboratory classes at both the high school and college level. As physics instructors, however, many of us have used the traditional setup and experienced the tedium of collecting data and the frustration of students who obtain disappointing results for the charges on individual oil drops after two or three hours of hard work. Some novel approaches have been developed to make the data collection easier and more accurate. One method is to attach a CCD (charge coupled device) camera to the microscope of the traditional setup.1,2 Through the CCD camera, the motion of an oil drop can be displayed on a TV monitor1 and/or on a computer.2 This allows several students to view the image of a droplet simultaneously instead of taking turns squinting through the tiny microscope eyepiece on the traditional setup. Furthermore, the motion of an oil drop can be captured and analyzed using software such as VideoPoint,3 which enhances the accuracy of the measurement of the charge on each oil drop.2 While these innovative methods improve the convenience and efficiency with which data can be collected, an instructor has to invest a considerable amount of money and time so as to adapt the new techniques to his or her own classroom. In this paper, we will report on the QuickTime movies we made, which can be used to analyze the motions of 16 selected oil drops. These digital videos are available on the web4 for teachers to download and use with their own students. We will also share the procedure for analyzing the videos using Logger Pro,5 as well as our results for the charges on the oil drops and some pedagogical aspects of using the movies with students.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
September 2008
PAPERS|
September 01 2008
Millikan Movies
Xueli Zou;
Xueli Zou
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Eric Dietz;
Eric Dietz
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Trevor McGuire;
Trevor McGuire
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Louise Fox;
Louise Fox
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Tiara Norris;
Tiara Norris
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Brendan Diamond;
Brendan Diamond
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Ricardo Chavez;
Ricardo Chavez
California State University, Chico, Chico, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Stephen Cheng
Stephen Cheng
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Phys. Teach. 46, 365–368 (2008)
Citation
Xueli Zou, Eric Dietz, Trevor McGuire, Louise Fox, Tiara Norris, Brendan Diamond, Ricardo Chavez, Stephen Cheng; Millikan Movies. Phys. Teach. 1 September 2008; 46 (6): 365–368. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2971222
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Citing articles via
Quark/Gluon Plasma: When Protons Melt
Don Lincoln
Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Tethered Buoys
Hans C. Mayer
A “Perpetual Motion Machine” Powered by Electromagnetism
Hollis Williams
Related Content
Conductors and Insulators: A QuickTime Movie
The Physics Teacher (October 2005)
Digital video microscopy in the Millikan oil-drop experiment
American Journal of Physics (August 2005)
Millikan Again
Phys. Teach. (April 2022)
Robert A. Millikan and the Oil Drop Experiment
Phys. Teach. (October 2019)
Millikan's Oil-Drop Experiment: A Centennial Setup Revisited in Virtual World
Phys. Teach. (February 2012)