You will hand in two technical reports during the block. These technical reports will be on the experiments you do in weeks two and three.
The goals of a technical report is to document how an experiment was done, provide a record of the raw data, describe how the data was analyzed, and present the results of the experiment. Most of the experiments in PC251 ask you to measure some quantity, the speed of light for example, and compare the measured result to the accepted value.
The best way to learn how to write a lab report is to look at an example of a good report. The lab report linked on this page is written to summarize an experiment done to test a hypothesis about the geometry of circles. Specifically, to experimentally determine if the circumference of a circle, \(C\), is proportional to its diameter, \(D\). To no one's surprise, they got the result that \(C = k D\), where the measured value for \(k\) was equal to \(\pi\) within the accuracy of the measurement.
The example report was created using scientific typesetting software called LaTeX. You don't have to write your papers using LaTeX, but I recommend it. You can use the example report's LaTeX document as a template to create your own reports. You can learn more about using LaTeX from a free online introduction to LaTeX webpage. One easy way to use the Overleaf web-based LaTeX editor. You can sign up for free by clicking on the Special Student Plans button on the Overleaf Plans webpage. You can also install LaTeX on your own computer for free. See the LaTeX for different machines page for more information.