University of Vermont Department of Physics PHYSICS 21 - Introductory Laboratory 1 Summer 2001 Syllabus

This laboratory course is designed to accompany either Physics 11 or Physics 31. Students registered in Physics 21 must now be enrolled in or have completed Physics 11 or 31.

Course Coordinator: Dr. Malcolm Sanders, Room A512 Cook Building   

Office Hours: By appointment, available most weekday afternoons.

e-mail: mmsander@zoo.uvm.edu     Phone: 656-0050

Course Instructor:(section Z1, M/Th) Lisa Sitek, Room A-405 Cook Building

Office Hours: by arrangement.

e-mail: lsitek@hotmail.com     Phone: 656-2644

Course Instructor: Qiliang Li, Room A-446 Cook Building

Office Hours: Thurs., noon - 2 p.m. or by arrangement

e-mail: qli@zoo.uvm.edu     Phone: 656-0060

See Dr. Sanders if you have any specific questions about the laboratory course, or special problems regarding attendance or grades.

Required Course Materials: 

Goals and Emphases:

Physics is a discipline with its own ways of collecting and organizing knowledge. It is an experimental science, and experimental physics makes its own contributions to discovering truth. In a physics laboratory course, you should learn something of what a physical scientist means when saying that the results of an experiment confirm or contradict the predictions of a theory. In many cases, the desired measurement is not immediately apparent in the data, and you must learn at least a few of the simpler ways of extracting such measurements. In addition, agreement between theory and experiment is almost never exact. How close an agreement is good enough? That turns out to be a tough question to answer, and requires you to know something of error analysis.

With these goals in mind, we have denoted selected experiments as most appropriate to teach certain things that we hope you gain from this course. Unless you are told otherwise, you should assume that the primary objective of having you perform an experiment in this course is to increase your physical understanding.

Your Laboratory Notebook: 

All data must be recorded, as it is being taken, directly in your laboratory notebook. Make sure that you use a carbon under each page so that you have a record of your data and analysis.  All entries should be clear and complete concerning what is being recorded and the details and conditions of the experimental setup.  If you must redo a measurement, explain the reason in your notebook and cross-out the old data in such a way that it can still be read. General guidelines for preparing acceptable lab reports were given in the Introduction of the Physics 21 Introductory Lab manual and further guidelines specific to each experiment may be found weekly on the Physics 21 Lab web pages.  At the end of each lab period you are expected to hand in, to be graded, the original (not carbon) copy of all pages containing data and the analysis of the data, including graphs.  Also include any changes or additions to the published experimental procedures, and the answers to questions posed in the lab manual.  

Using the carbon-copy of your data and analysis, you should then prepare and submit your typewritten abstract within the allotted time.   The abstract should contain concise statements describing the objective(s) of the experiment, any physics background information that is especially relevant to the experiment, and important results that are clearly supported by your observations and analysis. (Abstracts are strictly limited to a length of 500 words!)

 2 points will be automatically deducted from late reports, and no reports will be accepted more that 1 day late!

Laboratory Report Guidelines:

You will turn in a Laboratory Report at the end of your lab session. The report is intended to make you think carefully about what you did and its relation to the theoretical parts of physics. The Laboratory Report should be brief (3-4 pages plus figures). It should contain the sections listed below.

A. Introduction/Objective:

Briefly, what was the object of the experiment? To measure g? To see for yourself that energy is conserved? You can enter the experiment wholeheartedly as a game (although, for example, the value of g is already known better than you will measure it), without being pretentious; be modest.

It would be wise to have at least a tentative objective written in your Lab Notebook before you go to lab.

B. Procedure:

What did your group do to obtain your results? Keep it brief, and refer to the instructions rather than repeat them, but your procedure should be an exact description of what you did. If you made a mistake, another person, who repeats the experiment according to your description, should make the same mistake. You must take great care in lab to keep a complete record of your step by step procedure.

C. Data:

Your data (or observations) should be presented in a compact form, such as a table. Qualitative observations should be presented in clear, concise, correct sentences. Numbers should have associated units.

D. Analysis:

Describe how the results of the experiment were obtained from the data. A sample calculation and/or a graph will be required.

E. Results, Discussion:

Present the final results. Depending on your objective, these might be a value for a measured quantity, a statement of what you learned, or a statement that the observations are consistent/inconsistent with a theoretical prediction.

F. Errors:

In every report, your numbers and statements should be consistent with a general awareness of the possible systematic and random errors in the data. In a few experiments, you will be asked to be more detailed in your analysis of how these errors affect the results.

G. Questions:

In each report, please answer the questions in your lab manual about the experiment you just performed. You should answer the questions on your own.

The word "error" in experimental physics means something special. Learn to use it correctly. Its permissible modifiers are "random" and "systematic". A "systematic error" produces a bias in an experimental result that is always in the same direction. "Random errors" produce deviations from the correct result, which are scattered and equally likely to be positive or negative. You must never use the phrase "human error", unless you mean "careless mistake".

Lab Report Grading Criteria

4 pts. - Acceptable, no revisions needed.

3 pts. - Acceptable, minor revisions needed.

2 pts. - Acceptable, sufficient data taken and recorded, but major revisions to the analysis and/or abstract are needed.

1 pt. - Unacceptable, submitted data is not adequately  labeled and/or is insufficient to support the required analysis.

0 pts. - Unacceptable

Your laboratory report and abstract will be graded within 24 hours after it has been submitted. You should see your lab instructor during their office hours, or at a mutually agreed upon time, to pick up your graded report and, if desired, to review your grade. Revisions may be made to lab reports which were originally deemed acceptable and the reports may be re-submitted for consideration of a higher grade. Revised reports must be re-submitted to the instructor’s designated collection box at least one school-day prior to the student's next regular lab period.

Attendance:  Attendance at your assigned laboratory section is required. A missed experiment will not automatically decrease your grade if you provide us with a signed medical excuse. You are still responsible for the associated material even if you are excused from an experiment.

Evaluation:  Your final grade for Physics 21 will be determined approximately as follows:

Laboratory reports 80%

Quizzes (4) 10%

Abstracts (4) 10%

Letter grades will be assigned to final course averages as follows:

A's  90-100% ;   B's  80-89% ;  C's  70-79% ;  D's  60-69% ; Failures - below 60%.

Students who are concerned about their performance in the course are encouraged to discuss the matter with the course coordinator. Students who withdraw from Physics 11 or Physics 31 must also withdraw from Physics 21.

Students will be expected to comply with the University's Academic Honesty policy. Please consult The Cat's Tale or the Schedule of Spring Classes paper for details. In addition to the matters described there, please note that it is a serious offense to submit a report, or use data, from an experiment in which you did not participate. Cooperation with laboratory partners is encouraged during the setting up and data gathering parts of each experiment, but your analysis, conclusions, and write-up must be your own individual work.  Also, your work on the quizzes should be yours alone.

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