Discover
/
Article

Quark search gets help from Millikan

MAY 01, 1971

Every once in a while in discussions about quarks, you hear the old story that Millikan occasionally saw fractional charges while doing his oil‐drop experiment. Now William Fairbank and Arthur Hebard at Stanford University are repeating the experiment, replacing the oil drop with a superconducting niobium ball. They hope to improve the chance of finding a fractional charge because the probability of finding such a charge is proportional to the mass of the sphere. Their sphere has a mass of 7×10−5grams, in contrast to a typical Millikan oil drop of 3×10−11grams.

This article is only available in PDF format

Related content
/
Article
In the closest thing yet obtained to a movie of a breaking chemical bond, there’s a surprise ending.
This Content Appeared In
pt-cover_1971_05.jpeg

Volume 24, Number 5

Get PT in your inbox

pt_newsletter_card_blue.png
PT The Week in Physics

A collection of PT's content from the previous week delivered every Monday.

pt_newsletter_card_darkblue.png
PT New Issue Alert

Be notified about the new issue with links to highlights and the full TOC.

pt_newsletter_card_pink.png
PT Webinars & White Papers

The latest webinars, white papers and other informational resources.

By signing up you agree to allow AIP to send you email newsletters. You further agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.