written by Slavomir Tuleja, Wolfgang Christian, Mario Belloni, and Anne Cox

The Millikan Oil Drop Exploration is a virtual version of the Millikan's experiment. The experiment is based on balancing forces: the gravitational pull down on an oil drop and the electric force up on ionized particles. The simulation includes a schematic of the apparatus and simulated microscope viewing the oil drops. The oil drops fall and enter the a region where they can be seen through the microscope. Turning on an applied voltage provides a force that can, if adjusted correctly, exactly balance the gravitational force on the drop.

The Millikan Oil Drop Java applet was written by Slavo Tuleja.  It was converted from Java to JavaScript by W. Christian using the SwingJS system developed at St. Olaf College.

• Download MillikanOilDrop.zip - 983kb Compressed File

Last Modified November 25, 2019