The principles involved also find application in modern fields such as aerosol science and air ion measurement, demonstrating the enduring relevance of the original setup. By timing how long a droplet took to fall a known distance under gravity and how long it took to rise under the applied voltage, he determined the charge.
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He accounted for the slight drag effect on small particles using a correction factor derived from kinetic theory, a detail that significantly improved precision. This process was repeated hundreds of times, leading to the identification of a common fundamental unit.
This discovery confirmed that electric charge is quantized, existing in discrete multiples of this fundamental unit. Millikan created an atomizer to spray fine oil droplets into a chamber, where they acquired charge through friction with air or radiation.
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He then adjusted the voltage between two horizontal plates to make a specific droplet hover motionless. Conducted at the University of Chicago in the early twentieth century, this work provided the first precise measurement of the elementary electric charge, cementing the quantization of electricity.
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