Why the chamber for the Millikan Oil Drop experiment is so large?

[alyosha17]

1. The question asks, why is the external chamber in the Millkan Oil Drop experiment so large?

The Millikan Oil Drop is a classic experiment for determing the value of e, fundamental charge, on an electron. In my version of the experiment, I spraw droplets into an external chamber, and then they fall through a hole where they are observed. So, why is the external chamber so large?


my attempt at a solution

I say that the chamber is large so as to prevent oil droplets being drawn back into the external chamber when they are released from the atomiser. That was just a wild guess though.

What do you think?

 

[member 553083]

The external chamber is so large because it needs to be able to contain the droplets and provide enough space for the electric field to be created. In addition, the larger the chamber, the easier it is to measure the motion of the droplets as the electric field strength can be more easily detected. This is because the electric field does not have to be concentrated in a small space in order for it to be measured.