From the History of Science
The Millikan experiment from the point of view of mathematical statistics
Barabasheva Yu. M.,
Deviatkova G. N.,
Tutubalin V. N.,
Uger E. G.
Famous experiments by Robert A. Millikan to determine the electron charge are oftenused as an illustration of the method of confidence intervals in the statistical analysisof experimental data. Yet the lecturers typically pay attention to the already processed data on the measurement of 58 drops, whereas each of these values relies on theresults of several successive measurements. For 16 drops, Millikan provided the moredetailed primary data, which are analyzed here with the methods of mathematical statistics. It turns out that Millikan’s measurements were not statistically stable, whichmakes the method of confidence intervals inapplicable. However, the mean value of the electron charge, calculated on the basis of Millikan’s primary data, is very close to the modern value, and the narrow confidence interval includes the latter
Key words: confidence interval, empirical distribution function, lectron charge, normal scale, observational error theory, statistical stability, the Kolmogorov – Smirnov test, the Millikan experiment
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Barabasheva Yu. M.,
Deviatkova G. N.,
Tutubalin V. N.,
Uger E. G., The Millikan experiment from the point of view of mathematical statistics,
Voprosy Istorii Estestvoznaniia i Tekhniki [Studies in History of Science and Technology],
2016, vol. 37, no. 2, p. 233-250
© Studies in the History of Science and Technology: Quarterly scientific journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2015)
ISSN 0205-9606. Индекс 70143
