Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Definition
Millikan refers to Robert A. Millikan, an American experimental physicist who is best known for his oil-drop experiment that measured the charge of the electron. This experiment provided crucial evidence for the quantization of electric charge.
5 Must Know Facts For Your Next Test
Robert A. Millikan conducted the oil-drop experiment in 1909.
The oil-drop experiment measured the elementary electric charge (the charge of a single electron).
Millikan's work confirmed the discrete nature of electric charge.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 for his work on the elementary charge and the photoelectric effect.
Millikan's findings helped validate J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron.
A subatomic particle with a negative electric charge, found outside the nucleus of an atom.
Oil-Drop Experiment: An experiment conducted by Robert A. Millikan to measure the elementary electric charge by observing tiny charged droplets of oil between two metal electrodes.
Quantization: The concept that physical quantities, such as energy or electric charge, can only take on discrete values rather than any value within a range.