Robert millikan contribution to atomic theory
- What did robert millikan discover
- How did robert millikan make his discovery
- Robert millikan atomic model
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Today, the man who didn't want to be a physicist. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.
Robert A. Millikan never meant to be a physicist. He was born in 1868 and raised in a small town in Iowa. He liked athletics and classics. His high-school physics course was a joke; and, when he went to Oberlin to study classics, his college physics wasn't much better. But fate intervened. As an upperclassman, he was asked to teach the college physics course. When he balked, he was told, "Anyone who can understand Greek can teach physics."
The year he graduated, 1891, was a depression year; so he kept on teaching physics at $600 a year. It was the only work he could find. While he was at it, someone on the Oberlin faculty submitted his name for a graduate assistantship in physics at Columbia. It came through with a $700 stipend. Millikan took it. The only doors that opened to him, seemed to open into physics.
When his fellowship ran out, a professor lent him
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R.A. Millikan
A native of Illinois, Robert Millikan was born March 22, 1868. He studied physics at Oberlin College and later at Columbia University where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1895. His doctoral research involved the polarization of light emitted by incandescent surfaces. He spent a year in Germany at the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen and returned to the U.S. to join the physics faculty at the University of Chicago.
In 1907, he began taking measurements of the electronic charge of an electron. Earlier researchers had studied the behavior of clouds of charged particles, but he investigated single drops of water and oil in electrical and gravitational fields. From those, he derived the first accurate value of e. American experimental physicist (1868–1953) This article is about the Nobel laureate physicist. For Nobel laureate in chemistry, see Robert S. Mulliken. Robert Andrews Millikan Millikan in 1923 Greta Blanchard Copyright ©mobthaw.pages.dev 2025
Millikan’s major optics contribution came in 1916 when he turned his attention to the photoelectric equation of Einstein (E =hv). By varying both energies and frequencies, he obtained an accurate value for the Planck constant h. For his determinations of atomic structure of electrons and the photoelectric eff •
Robert Andrews Millikan
In office
1920–1946Succeeded by Lee Alvin DuBridge Born (1868-03-22)March 22, 1868
Morrison, Illinois, U.S.Died December 19, 1953(1953-12-19) (aged 85)
San Marino, California, U.S. Alma mater Known for Spouse Children Awards Honors Medal for Merit (1949)[3] Scientific career Fields Experimental physics Institutions Thesis On the polarization of light emitted from the surfaces of incandescent solids and liquids. (1895) Doctoral advisor Ogden Rood Other academic advisors Doctoral students Allegiance United States Service / branch United States Army[2] Years of service 1917–1918 Rank Lieutenant Colonel Unit Aviation