PC251 Modern Physics Laboratory

Lab Information | Lab Resources

Laboratory Information

All physical theories are based on measurement. In the lab portion of this course you will begin to learn how to make experimental measurements. There are four steps to doing the labs in the course:

1. Preparation To prepare for the lab you will do a little reading about the experiment and the experimental setup. If you were to create your own experiments, you would have to design the procedure. In these experiments part of the reading will help you go through creating the procedure.
2. Perform the experiement This is the part of the lab where you actually take data. You will record your data and exactly what you did while in the lab in a laboratory notebook. Good note taking is essential to doing good science.
3. Data analysis Reducing the data you took in the lab to generate desired measurement can take as much more time and effort than taking the data.
4. Communicating your result Presentations and written papers are the most common ways of communicating the results of experiments in science. In this course you will describe the results of your experiment to your instructor and you will write a technical report for two of the three labs experiments.

You will do three labs during the block; you will do one each of the first three weeks of the block. Experimental physics is collaborative, so you will be working in teams of three. We will assign lab partners and times during the first days of the course.

Lab instructions for each of the labs are posted on the resources page of the lab website. Be sure to read the instructions and answer the questions in the Preparations section of the lab instructions before you arrive to do the lab. It will take 45 minutes to an hour to prepare for each lab. Put the answers to the Preparations section questions in your lab notebook. Do this preparation before you arrive for your assigned lab time. Your lab instructor will check to make sure you have answered the questions before you will be allowed to start the lab. After making sure you are prepared, your instructor will describe how the equipment works and help you get started. It will take about an hour to take data. The next step is to analyze the data. After you have finished the analysis your lab instructor will meet with your group to review your lab notebooks and ask you a few questions about your results. Present the results in your lab notebooks as clearly as possible with neatly prepared graphs and readable results. Occasionally, you will be asked to go back and fill in some things you might have missed before you are given a pass on the lab.

Laboratory Grades

Your laboratory grade will be based on your laboratory notebook for the first week's lab and two technical reports on the experiments you do in weeks two and three. Due dates for the laboratory notebook and the technical reports are listed in the schedule below and on the course schedule. Any of these assignments that are handed in after the due date will have the score reduced by 10% per day.

Laboratory Schedule

You will do one laboratory per week for the first three weeks of the block. You should plan on spending about an hour preparing for the lab before coming to the lab session. It typically takes about an hour to take data for each lab and another hour to finish the data analysis.