Robert Millikan

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

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Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/robert-millikan

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Robert Millikan born?March 22, 1868
2. When did Robert Millikan die?December 19, 1953 (age 85)
3. Where was Robert Millikan born?Morrison, Illinois, USA
4. What is the key constants determined?Elementary charge (e), Planck's constant (h)
5. Who was Robert Millikan?Robert Millikan was a scientist who studied electricity and helped us understand tiny particles called electrons. He was born in 1868 and taught and researched at the University of Chicago and Caltech.
6. What did Millikan's oil‑drop experiment discover?The experiment measured the charge on tiny oil droplets and showed that electric charge comes in small, equal steps. It proved that each electron has a specific, tiny charge of about 1.6 × 10⁻¹⁹ coulombs.

Quantization: The principle that physical quantities, like electric charge, exist only in discrete, indivisible units.
Electron: A fundamental subatomic particle with a negative electric charge, a key component of atoms.
Photoelectric Effect: The emission of electrons from a material when light shines on it, explained by Einstein's photon theory.
Photon: A quantum of the electromagnetic field, a discrete packet of light energy.