Revision as of 19:14, 29 November 2009

Millikan Oil Drop

Worked with Elizabeth Allen
Went through a safety brief with Dr. Koch and discussed whats going on in this lab
used several books to get the height just right to view the eyepiece
Set up the equipment and adjusted the eyepiece suing the focusing wire to get the grid into focus
Hooked up the multimeter to the what ever to record the current and looked on the chart on the apparatus to find out at what temp that the experiment was being conducted and also found out what voltage is being applied to the capacitor plates
Put some oil on the plates using the dropper and started to take data by picking out oil drops to watch
Had some difficulty's in finding the drops and deiced to adjust the focus to find the drops I don't know if this will alter the data but I will calculate the calculations for the first day compared to how using a different way to find the drops on the other day
Got some data but it was a struggle to find the drops

Worked with Elizabeth Allen again
Came in and set up the lab. Took readings on the voltage across the plates which was 501.1 volts. We then took a temperature reading using the multimeter and the attached chart.
Opened the ionization source lever to allow oil in the spray position and sprayed oil in the chamber.
Having trouble seeing any drops again cleaned the apparatus where the oil is let in the chamber to try to see if there were any clogs that were preventing any of the oil from coming into the chamber.
Seeing lots of drops but none of the drops appear on the grid I don't know why but since they are not on the grid I cannot tell where they are in relation and how far they travel in terms of the grid-lines. We got Dr Koch to help us with spraying and focusing the interment again. We started taking data on drops again.

First try we could not find oil drops. Searched for them with the focus rings, but no luck. David re-calibrated the focus with the probe.and sprayed oil without the small black cover inside .

{{#widget:Google Spreadsheet |key=0Ao8NF4FsZR3ydC1wbm5xZXNYV0RKVlNjYVpIRGFibEE |width=950 |height=300 }}

some possible sources of error can come from the amount of drops inside the chamber so you can lose track of the drop your viewing and think that it is a different drop than it actually is. Another source could be when you open the ionization source lever to allow air to escape when you are putting the initial drops in the chamber and forget to close it allowing air to continue to flow in the chamber which could cause the drops to fall at a higher rate or lower rate.

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 *First try we could not find oil drops. Searched for them with the focus rings, but no luck. David re-calibrated the focus with the probe.and sprayed oil without the small black cover inside .
+==Data==
+{{ShowGoogleExcel|id=0Ao8NF4FsZR3ydC1wbm5xZXNYV0RKVlNjYVpIRGFibEE|width=950|height=300}}
 ==Errors==