Robert Andrews Millikan

The Wellesley News (1928-04-19)

An Appraisal of the Controversial Nature of the Oil Drop Experiment: Is Closure Possible?

Acceptance of the quantization of the elementary electrical charge (e) was preceded by a bitter dispute between Robert Millikan (1868–1953) and Felix Ehrenhaft (1879– 1952), which lasted for many years (1910–25). Both Millikan and Ehrenhaft obtained very similar experimental results and yet Millikan was led to formulate the elementary electrical charge (electron) and Ehrenhaft to fractional cha...

Estimating intrinsic attenuation of a building using deconvolution interferometry and time reversal

Structural engineers have measured a building’s response to strong motion from civil structures that have been instrumented with accelerometers, such as the Robert A. Millikan Library of the California Institute of Technology. The attenuation of the motion of this building has been measured using seismic interferometry techniques in the past. We use the breaking of the temporal symmetry of the ...

Extracting the Building Response Using Seismic Interferometry: Theory and Application to the Millikan Library in Pasadena, California

The motion of a building depends on the excitation, the coupling of the building to the ground, and the mechanical properties of the building. We separate the building response from the excitation and the ground coupling by deconvolving the motion recorded at different levels in the building and apply this to recordings of the motion in the Robert A. Millikan Library in Pasadena, California. Th...

Mental Representations and Millikan's Theory of Intentional Content: Does Biology Chase Causality

(Millikan1984), 1 Ruth Garrett Millikan utilizes the idea of a biological function to solve philosophical problems associated with the phenomena of language, thought, and meaning. Language and thought are activities of biological organisms, according to Millikan, and we should treat them as such when trying to answer related philosophical questions. Of special interest is Millikan's treatment o...