Biography:Robert Millikan: Difference between revisions

From HandWiki Test
Add biography overview template
Place biography table of contents at upper left
 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|American physicist who measured the elementary electric charge}}
{{Short description|American physicist who measured the elementary electric charge}}
<div class="sw-mainpage-toc" style="float:left; width:240px; max-width:24%; margin:0 22px 12px 0;">
__TOC__
</div>
{{Biography page}}
{{Biography page}}



Latest revision as of 23:03, 24 May 2026

← Previous: Gerard J. Milburn
Next: Robert Andrews Millikan →


Robert A. Millikan
Millikan
Millikan
Born 22 March 1868
Morrison, Illinois, United States
Died 19 December 1953
San Marino, California, United States


Known for Oil-drop experiment; elementary charge; photoelectric effect
Awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1923)

Robert A. Millikan (1868-1953) was an American physicist best known for the oil-drop experiment, which measured the elementary electric charge. His work made the charge of the electron a precise physical constant.

Elementary charge

Millikan's oil-drop experiment measured tiny charged droplets suspended in an electric field. By comparing electric and gravitational forces, Millikan inferred that electric charge occurs in discrete units. This result supported the particle picture of electricity and the electron.

Millikan also worked on the photoelectric effect, a phenomenon central to early quantum theory.

References


Author: Harold Foppele