Department of Physics and Astronomy
Class: W 2-4:50 pm, Darwin 311
Instructor: Dr. Hongtao Shi
Phone: 664-2013
Email: Hongtao.Shi@sonoma.edu
Office: Darwin 300J
Office Hours: M 2:00 - 3:30 pm
Course
Description and Goals:
This is a lab based course, accompanying Physics
214. By performing these experiments, you will deepen your understanding
of the material in Physics 214 and develop your experimental technique.
Laboratories concerning waves, electromagnetism, and optics will be performed.
Prerequisite:
Previous
or concurrent enrollment in Physics 214.
Text:
No
text is adopted for this course. All lab-related material will be posted on
the web. Make sure you download those material and finish the prelab BEFORE
each lab.
Grading Policy: The laboratory grade will be based on the best 13 experiments out of 14, worth 75%. Three (3) quizzes are worth 25%.
| Course Grade | Percent |
| A | 90-100 |
| B | 80-89 |
| C | 70-79 |
| D | 60-69 |
| F | Below 60 |
Prelaboratory Work: Each lab is worth 100 points, including prelaboratory work (max = 10 points) and performing all the required work in the lab and completing the lab report (max = 90 points). The prelab work has a few questions to help you prepare for that week's laboratory. Hand in prelab work before the laboratory starts.
Laboratory
Notebooks and Reports:
All laboratory reports are typed on a word processor. Draw in sketches or tables
if your graphics and spreadsheet capabilities are limited. Please purchase a
lab notebook that has the carbonless copy feature to record your original data.
You will tear out the copies and hand them in along with the typed lab report
at the beginning of the next laboratory period.
Other
Policies: Computer
assisted analysis of the data where appropriate is expected. You can use DataStudio
or Microsoft Excel or other graphical software that you are familiar with to
plot your data and perform least squares fitting routines that handle uncertainty
estimates. EXCEPT FOR EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES, ABSENCES
BEYOND ONE LAB CAN NOT BE MADE UP.
Laboratory
Report Format. Total worth 90 points.
Always include your name, date and name(s) of laboratory partner(s).
| 1) |
Drawing of experimental setup |
5 pts |
| 2) |
Record
of raw data obtained with labels |
10 pts |
| 3) |
Brief description how you did the experiment, i.e., procedure |
10 pts |
| 4) |
Experimental design, data analysis, and results including tables and graphs |
40 pts |
| 5) |
Answer all the questions at end |
20 pts |
| 6) |
Conclusions |
5 pts |
1)
A simple sketch is best. This is a useful skill when you design your own experiments.
2)
Your original data should be attached to your report. Plan ahead and organize
your data taking before any measurement. This is best done before the laboratory
period. All data tables need to be labeled with what the quantity is and the
appropriate units.
3) Briefly describe how you implemented the experiment.
4) When it comes to your own design and exploration, make sure you include all the details, such as principles or theory, experimental procedures, data tables, and graphs.
Data
reduction, background subtraction, and error estimates are in this section.
The computer can be used to great advantage to draw the graphs, to do the least
squares fitting, and to provide you with error estimates based on the scatter
in the data. All graphs must have a title and axes labeled
with units. The conclusions drawn from each graph need to be described
in complete sentences (one or two is usually sufficient). A graph with no statement
as to what it means is not going to earn the maximum grade.
5)
Answer any questions at the end of the write up.
6)
A concise summary comparing theory and experiment demonstrates you know what
you are doing and makes for a professional report. The summary should be brief
and based on your experimental results.
Additional
factors:
a)
Have you covered a sufficient range of input parameters to really test the theory?
The test of a theory is more convincing if you use extreme values of the parameters
as well as values in the middle.
b)
The instructor is also looking at your original data to see if you made initial
trials before taking the final data set. Does the technique and final set up
reflect knowledge gained on initial trials? Real science seldom goes right on
the first try.
c)
Are some points repeated to check repeatability? Have you looked over the data
while you are taking it and retaken suspicious points? If you analyze your data
before taking down the equipment, you may be able to spot troublesome points,
and repeat them.
d)
Overall, have you tried during the laboratory to undertake a credible experiment
within the limitations of the equipment available?
Do
discuss the results with your partners, and perhaps the instructor, if the results
seem odd.
Important University policies, such as add/drop classes, cheating and plagiarism, grade appeal procedures, can be found at
http://www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/studentinfo.shtml.
Email me if you have questions or comments.
Last updated 8/17/2013