With the aid of a diagram, describe Millikan’s experiment to determine the charge on an oil drop 

With the aid of a diagram, describe Millikan’s experiment to determine the charge on an oil drop

• Separation between the plates P₁ and P₂ is measured
• Oil is sprayed through the hole in plate P₁.
• Oil drops are ionized by friction and /or X-rays
• With no p.d applied a drop is selected and its terminal velocity v₁ is calculated
• For known density ρ of oil, density σ of air and coefficient of viscosity, η of air, radius of the drop is calculated from

• The p.d is now applied between the plates and varied until the selected drop remain stationary
• The p.d V is read and recorded.
• The charge Q carried by the drop is determined from

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