Robert Millikan's Email & Phone Number

📖 Summary

Robert Millikan was an American physicist who made significant contributions to the fields of physics and chemistry. He is best known for his famous oil drop experiment, which helped to determine the charge of an electron. Born in 1868 in Morrison, Illinois, Millikan showed an early interest in science and mathematics. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1895, where he studied under the renowned physicist, Arthur Gordon Webster.

After completing his education, Millikan began his career as a professor at the University of Chicago, where he conducted his groundbreaking oil drop experiment. This experiment involved suspending tiny oil droplets in a chamber and then observing their behavior in an electric field. By carefully measuring the droplets' motion, Millikan was able to calculate the charge of a single electron, which he found to be 1.5924 x 10^-19 coulombs, a value that is remarkably close to the currently accepted value of 1.602176634 x 10^-19 coulombs. This experiment provided crucial evidence for the existence of individual, quantized electric charges and earned Millikan the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.

In addition to his work on the charge of the electron, Millikan also made important contributions to our understanding of the photoelectric effect, which is the ejection of electrons from a material when it is exposed to light. This phenomenon had been studied by numerous scientists, but it was Millikan who provided a more accurate explanation of the effect by demonstrating that the energy of the ejected electrons is directly proportional to the frequency of the incident light, as predicted by Albert Einstein in his theory of the photoelectric effect.

Millikan's research also extended to other areas of physics and chemistry, including the study of cosmic rays and the measurement of Avogadro's number. His work in these areas helped to advance our understanding of fundamental physical processes and laid the groundwork for future discoveries in the field of atomic and particle physics.

In addition to his scientific achievements, Millikan was also a dedicated educator and mentor to numerous students and researchers. He served as the president of the California Institute of Technology for over two decades, where he helped to build the institution into a world-class center for scientific research and education. His contributions to the field of physics and his commitment to inspiring the next generation of scientists have left a lasting impact on the scientific community.

Millikan's legacy continues to be honored today through the many awards and honors that bear his name, as well as through the ongoing research and discoveries that have been made possible by his groundbreaking work. His oil drop experiment remains a classic example of meticulous and innovative scientific inquiry and serves as a testament to the profound impact that one individual can have on our understanding of the natural world. Robert Millikan's legacy as an American physicist is one that will continue to inspire and influence future generations of scientists for years to come.