LAB REPORT: “MILIKAN OIL DROP METHOD”

PHY392 – LABORATORY II

BS PHYSICS

Day-Scholars

Group 02

Hamna

Submitted to:

Ma’am

School of Natural Sciences

National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad

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21st March 2021

Abstract

By charging drops of oil through ionizing the air and exposing them to an electric force, we

tend to find the charge of a single electron. When we get the charge, since we know the

electron’s charge to mass (e/m) ratio, we can divide its electric charge to the e/m ratio and get

the mass of electron.

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Theory and Procedure

The experimental setup requires an atomizer for the oil, a very high voltage dc power

supply that can supply up to 10,000 volts, a cathode and anode, an x-ray source to provide

ionizing radiation, and a microscope to observe the phenomena. The setup is shown in the

picture.

The oil is sprayed upon the cathode (positive plate) which has a small hole in it to let

very small drops pass through and enter the region between the plates. The x-ray source

ionizes the air between the plates, which in turn charges the oil drops. At first, the voltage

source is powered off and the phenomena is observed on the oil drops.

First, the oil drops accelerate due the gravitational force. And then, they reach a

constant velocity due the viscous force by the air, working upwards on them. When the

constant velocity is reached, it means the forces acting on the oil drops are equal, thus,

making gravitational force equal to the viscous force.

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The picture shows the forces acting on the oil drop. The velocity of the oil drop can be

calculated experimentally by recording the time the oil drop drops a certain distance between

the plates. Using the stokes law, we get the formula for the viscosity of air. In it, the ‘r’ is the

radius of the oil drop. Since the motion of oil drop is constant, both the forces are equal to

each other. Thus,

With this, r can be calculated and once we get the value of r, we can calculate the

value of the viscous force.

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Now, the voltage is applied between the 2 plates. Due to this, an electric force is
exerted

on the oil drop which is,

𝐹𝐸 = 𝑞. 𝐸

Where ‘q’ is the charge on the oil drop and ‘E’ is the electric field between the 2
plates.

When we apply the voltage, we get 2 cases.

1) Case 1:

The oil drop drops between the plates with a constant velocity. In that case, the

picture shows the forces acting on the oil drop and how to calculate the charge on

the oil.

‘d’ is the distance between the plates and the ‘V’ is the voltage applied by the

power source. Since viscous force is equal to the gravitational force, once constant

velocity is reached, we use the stokes law to calculate the downwards force rather
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than the gravitational formula because both would give the same answer. ‘q’ on

the oil is calculated as shown in the picture.

2) Case 2:
The oil drop may rise up with a constant velocity ‘𝑣2’, which can be
experimentally

calculated by recording the time required for the oil drop to rise a certain distance.

This time, the viscous force acts downwards as the oil drop is moving upwards. As

the oil drop rises with a constant velocity, the upwards forces are equated to the

downward forces and thus, we can calculate the value of the charge on the oil drop

as shown.

We then prepare a chart for various values of the charge on the oil drops. The

chart looks somewhat like this,

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The change in charge shows the difference of charges between 2 oil drops. Since

the oil drop requires its charge by the accumulation of electrons on the oil drop, all

these charges present the total charge of electrons.

Through this table, it was noted that the charge on the oil drop was always an

integer multiple of a minimum charge, which is shown by ‘n’ in the table. The

charge on oil drop was

𝑞 = 𝑛. 𝑒

Where ‘e’ was the minimum charge which was found to be ‘∓𝟏. 𝟔𝟎𝟐 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟗’.

Thus, this way we got the charge on an electron.

To calculate the mass of the electron, we divide the charge by its e/m ratio, which

is already known, and get its mass.

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Thus, this is how we get the charge of an electron and through it, we get the mass

as well.