Science

A physicist balanced charged oil droplets in mid-air and found electricity comes in chunks

In 1909, Robert Millikan suspended tiny charged oil droplets between electric plates, adjusting the voltage until gravity and electric force canceled out. Every droplet's charge turned out to be a whole-number multiple of one value: the charge of a single electron. It was the first direct proof that electric charge is quantized.

Robert A. Millikan, On the Elementary Electrical Charge and the Avogadro Constant — Physical Review, 1913

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