Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Robert Andrews Millikan

Quote by Robert Andrews Millikan

Work

The electron, its isolation and measurement ant the determination of some of its properties

This book delves into the study of the electron, discussing methods for its isolation and measurement, as well as the identification of various properties associated with it. more

Author

Robert Andrews Millikan
Robert Andrews Millikan

Robert Andrews Millikan was a renowned physicist known for his contributions to the precise measurement of the electron charge. In 1909, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work. Millikan's oil drop experiment was a landmark in this achievement, laying the foundation for the development of quantum mechanics. more

You May Also Like

“The Reader may here observe the Force of Numbers, which can be successfully applied, even to those things, which one would imagine are subject to no Rules. There are very few things which we know, which are not capable of being reduc'd to a Mathematical Reasoning, and when they cannot, it's a sign our Knowledge of them is very small and confus'd; and where a mathematical reasoning can be had, it's as great folly to make use of any other, as to grope for a thing in the dark when you have a Candle standing by you.”

“The regularity with which we conclude that further advances in a particular field are impossible seems equaled only by the regularity with which events prove that we are of too limited vision. And it always seems to be those who have the fullest opportunity to know who are the most limited in view. What, then, is the trouble? I think that one answer should be: we do not realize sufficiently that the unknown is absolutely infinite, and that new knowledge is always being produced.”

“The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe that it is other than a very valuable posession, however infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is a man who has so much as to be out of danger?”

“The whole question of imagination in science is often misunderstood by people in other disciplines. ... They overlook the fact that whatever we are allowed to imagine in science must be consistent with everything else we know.”

“The whole value of science consists in the power which it confers upon us of applying to one object the knowledge acquired from like objects; and it is only so far, therefore, as we can discover and register resemblances that we can turn our observations to account.”