Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The rudimentary umbilical vesicle of some fishes.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Some of our favorites -- the oil-drop paperweight ($125), the 1997 Al Gore Hammer Award for innovative achievements ($100) and Petey the Petroleum Loving Whale ($50) -- were quickly bid up to the asking prices.

    43 top agency jobs remain unfilled 2010

  • When Robert Millikan conducted his famous oil-drop experiments in 1910 and 1911, his purpose was to measure the electric charge on an electron.

    The Nature of Technology W. Brain Arthur 2009

  • Soon thereafter (in 1912) Robert A. Millikan made the first precision measurement of the electron charge with the oil-drop method, which led to a Physics Prize for him in 1923.

    The Nobel Prizes in Physics 1901-2000 2000

  • Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) established that electric charge always consists of an integral multiple of a unit charge, which he determined with great accuracy in his oil-drop experiment.

    1910-13 2001

  • This outcome necessitated the revision of the Millikan oil-drop value from 4.774 to 4.803 X 10-10 e.s.u. (revealing that systematic errors had been made in the measurement of the viscosity of air, a quantity entering into the oil-drop method).

    Arthur H. Compton - Biography 1965

  • But you cannot mix with it mentally; -- You circulate only as an oil-drop in its current.

    Two Years in the French West Indies Lafcadio Hearn 1877

  • The famed oil-drop experiment of 1909 demonstrated that electrical charge was quantized, and by implication proved the existence of subatomic particles.

    Armed and Dangerous 2010

  • Among other anecdotes, Goodstein discusses Millikan’s oil-drop experiment, cold fusion, the case of Jan Hendrik Schön at Bell Laboratories, a little-known case where a Caltech postdoc apparently falsified a figure in a paper, and the successful discovery of high-temperature superconductivity.

    The Panda's Thumb: May 2010 Archives 2010

  • Among other anecdotes, Goodstein discusses Millikan’s oil-drop experiment, cold fusion, the case of Jan Hendrik Schön at Bell Laboratories, a little-known case where a Caltech postdoc apparently falsified a figure in a paper, and the successful discovery of high-temperature superconductivity.

    The Panda's Thumb: Book Reviews Archives 2010

  • Among other anecdotes, Goodstein discusses Millikan’s oil-drop experiment, cold fusion, the case of Jan Hendrik Schön at Bell Laboratories, a little-known case where a Caltech postdoc apparently falsified a figure in a paper, and the successful discovery of high-temperature superconductivity.

    Cautionary tales from the front lines of science - The Panda's Thumb 2010

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