Natural Science Forum / Physics / Particle Physics / March 2007

Stanford Universities Nobel prizewinner, Robert Laughlin, has produced a
treatase about 1/3 e as a charge.

When I was a physics student at Portsmouth University in about 1968 we did
the students version of millikin, the oil drop experiment. I found there was
result corresponding to 1/3 e. This was normal.

I did it by balancing the mass x g against the voltage and plotting a graph
as the charges changed, the smallest change was 1/3 e.

Well I got rollicked for it and I was asked for my cook constant, but I did
not use that. I prefer an honest result even if it is wrong.