One of the difficulties in teaching 20th-century physics ideas in introductory physics is that many seminal experiments that are discussed in textbooks are difficult or expensive for students to access experimentally. In this paper, we discuss an analogous exercise to Millikan's oil-drop experiment that lets students experience some of the physics involved in the experiment and some of the difficulties Millikan faced.
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One source for such a pipe is McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com), part number 49035K91.
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2009
American Association of Physics Teachers
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