Talk:Robert Andrews Millikan

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Contents 1 the quantum aspect 2 Date of the oil drop experiment 3 WikiProject class rating 4 Fair use rationale for Image:Robert-millikan-stamp.jpg

[edit] the quantum aspect

I'd suggest that the quantum aspect of Millikan's oil drop experiment needs to be emphasised. Although, at the time of the oil-drop experiment, J.J. Thomson had measured the charge/mass ratio of the electron, the idea that electron beams really were corpuscles was by no means accepted by all. (See, e.g. [http://www.aip.org/history/electron/jjelectr.htm]. Nowadays many have come to think of an electron as a sort of tiny billiard ball, which of course it isn't. At the time of the oil-drop experiment, charge was seen rather more as a continuous variable in Maxwwell's equations. Hence I suggest:

The oil drop experiment was the first practical demonstration that charge is quantised.

I did find a scanned version of a book of biographies of scientists a couple of years ago, but an hour or so of Google hasn't turned it up yet. Edison at the time believed that charge was a continuous phenomenon, and it was only after seeing Millikan's apparatus for himself that he changed his mind. If anyone can find a reference to this ... it seems quite relevant. Davy p 00:58, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Date of the oil drop experiment

According to both Britannica and the IoP the oil drop experiment does appear to have been done first in 1909. Davy p 01:07, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

I added some more text, and three references regarding the time line. Feel free to improve those. Awolf002 02:40, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 14:37, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Robert-millikan-stamp.jpg

Image:Robert-millikan-stamp.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I added a fair use rationale. Hopefully that takes care of it. Dicklyon (talk) 07:16, 24 January 2008 (UTC)