Question

Answer the following questions with reference to Millikan’s oil drop experiment:
(i) What is an atomiser?
(ii)What is the use of an X-ray tube?
(iii) What is the unique property shown by the charge of an oil drop?

Answer 1

(i)  An atomiser is used to spray drops of oil into the apparatus.
(ii) X-ray tube is used to charge the oil drops by ionising them.
(iii) It was found that the charge on the oil drop was always some integral multiple of some minimum charge i. e.,
Q = ± Ne, where N is an integer
‘e’ is regarded as the charge on the electron.