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| Carl Sagan's COSMOS is one of the most influential science programs ever made.
Q. Does the moon have a dark side?
A. The moon does have a far side which is impossible to see from the earth, but it doesn't mean that it's always dark. Each side of the moon is dark for no longer than 15 days at a time.
Q. Where does sound come from?
A. The air is always filled with sound waves. All things give off vibrations, but some have a low frequency which most cannot hear. The reason: it may take 3 minutes to make a single vibration. They may be caused by earthquakes and storms.
Did You Know?
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Coke-a-Cola was originally green.
Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated.
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Millikan, Robert Andrews: 1868-1953
Robert Millikan was one of the most noted American physicist and scientists of his day. He was aware of the importance of the public's understanding of science, to which he
wrote Science and Life in 1923. He is most honored for his measurements of electrical charge, which is carried by an electron. Millikan's contributions to science were with the research of cosmic
rays.
Milligan was born in Morrison, Illinois in 1868. His parents were the Reverend Silas Franklin Millikan and Mary Jane Andrews, whose ancestors had immigrated to the US from Old New England. As a
child he attended Maquoket High School and worked as a court reporter before entering Oberlin College.
He studied at Oberlin College earning his master's degree in 1893. After leaving Oberlin, he enrolled at Columbia University. Millikan was the only physics graduate student and it was at Columbia that he
earned his PhD degree. Millikan began a series of experiments in 1909 that studied electrical charges, more specifically, electrical charges carried by electrons. His discovery was accomplished
by spraying minute drops of oil into a specially built chamber. It is known as the Millikan oil-drop experiment. He also verified Einstein's photoelectric equation and obtained a precise value
for Planck's constant. In 1923 he won the Nobel prize in physics for the experiment and discovery. The University of Chicago had recently opened Ryerson Laboratory and this is where Millikan stayed
until 1921.
In 1921, at the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics at California Institute of Technology Millikan was appointed its director. CIT became famous, with his guidance, for the contributions it made to
science. He carried out research on the phenomena of cosmic rays. He was also the pioneering road-paver for measuring cosmic ray intensity with specially built instrument carrying balloons. Millikan's
deep devotion to cosmic-ray research was the foundation for establishing a research team at the California Institute of Technology which made the most basic of these discoveries. The meson*,
which is a fundamental atomic particle, was the most important and significant discovery.
Millikan was fascinated and dedicated to the challenges of educating the general reader. He set himself to the task of writing textbooks that would capture the attention of readers, but also
provide an easy understanding of science to the general publix. His textbooks include, Electricity, Sound and Light in 1908; Science and Life in 1923; Elementary Physics in 1936; and,
Mechanics, Molecular Physics, Heat and Sound in 1937.
Millikan married in 1902 to Greta Blanchard. The couple had three sons: Clark Blanchard, Glen Allen and Max Franklin Millikan. Robert Andrews Millikan died in San Marino, California in December
of 1953, after devoting his life to discoveries of science and the universe.
*meson: an extremely unstable and heavy electron within cosmic rays. It is also found in particles with the same electric charge as an electron.
For Further Study:
Robert Millikan - Biography
From Nobel Archives. Indepth biography of his entire life.
Sources:
Barnhart, Clarence L. Thorndike-Barnhart Comprehensive Desk Dictionary Doubleday and Company, Inc: NY. 1965
Editors. The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book-Childcraft International, Inc: Chicago. 1990
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