Millikan experiment demonstrated the quantization of the electron charge and measured its magnitude. Millikan experiment is repeated in school laboratories, mostly with disappointing results. However, it is interesting to interpret the data presented by Millikan at his reception of the Nobel Prize and in an article in Physical Review. He spent many years perfecting the experiment, reducing convection currents and changed to oil drops to reduce the evaporation. The best data corresponded to drops so small that it took them 120 seconds to fall 1,303 cm, values that correspond to the presence of 1 to 4 electrons in a drop. However, in school laboratories, times as short as 3 to 10 seconds are routinely obtained, corresponding to the charges of tens of electrons per drop to overcome gravity. Such time, therefore, demand a very high precision in the measurement of speeds, seldom available in a typical school environment.
Keywords: : Experiment, Analysis, Millikan
