Determination of e/k

The measurement of fundamental constants is common practice in instructional laboratories. A number of the equipment manufacturers have developed apparatus for such applications, e.g., the determination of e by the Millikan oil drop method or the determination of the speed of light with fiber optics. Other experiments determine not a single constant, but a combination of constants, e.g., e/m by electron beam deflection in a magnetic field or h/e by the photoelectric effect. About 30 years ago Carl E. Miller and I1 proposed a method of measuring e/k, the ratio of the electron charge to Boltzmann’s constant, that was reasonably simple but not necessarily inexpensive because it involved the use of a sensitive electrometer. In recent years, however, inexpensive digital multimeters (DMM), many costing less than $30, have found their way into the physics laboratory. The purpose of this paper is to suggest the use of two DMMs, one operating as a voltmeter and the other as an ammeter, in a simple circuit involving a junction transistor and a variable potential source. Even the potential source can be quite simple, a 1.5-V battery and a 1-k potentiometer, If available, a variable dc power supply replacing the battery and potentiometer would be more convenient.