P202Lab

Information about P202 Laboratory Exercises, Spring '97

Attendance is required. Special arrangements may be made under exceptional circumstances, but this will usually result in points being taken off.
You should bring a calculator, ruler, compass, protractor, graph paper and erasable pencil to each lab.
You may finish the lab write-ups at home, HOWEVER; any raw data will be examined and signed by the instructor before you leave. The raw data is not to be recopied or modified but must be turned in as is with the lab report. This policy is intended to get you into the habit of making a neat record of your results as you go along and will help you avoid the problem of scribbling down numbers which you later cannot read or understand.
Lab reports must be turned in on time for full credit, points will be deducted for lateness.
Your lab grade will be based on the lab reports and attendance.

Each week you will turn in a report of the previous week's experiment. The exact form of the report is up to you and may vary depending on the experiment but should include the following:
- A description of the apparatus and procedure and an indication of the purpose of the experiment in your own words. This should be brief but complete enough that someone else (for example another student) could use your report to duplicate the experiment. Diagrams are often helpful;
- Raw data, signed by the instructor before you leave;
- Lab partners names;
- Any calculations done (show your work);
- Graphs (done using Graphical Analysis) where appropriate.
- Results and conclusions including : what you learned, sources of error, determination of which errors cause the greatest problems, ways to improve the experiment, answers to any questions asked in the lab manual, explanation of whether your results support or do not support what you were trying to prove (see Error Analysis).
If you know you are going to miss a lab, talk to the instructor about possibly making that lab up.
Lab exercises will sometimes be ahead or behind the lectures and in many cases there is material covered in the lab only (and not in the lecture). You are responsible for locating the appropriate reading material in the text so that you understand what the lab is about before you come to lab.
Points will be lost for lateness and excessive sloppiness.

Lab 1 Data Analysis (this is a take home exercise that is due at the first lab session)
Lab 2 Measurements
Lab 3 Force Table
Lab 4 Linear Motion
Lab 5 Projectile Motion
Lab 6 Friction
Lab 7 Uniform Circular Motion
Lab 8 Young's Modulus
Lab 9 Simple Harmonic Motion
Lab 10 Linear Expansion
Lab 11 Heat Capacity
Lab 12 Heat of Fusion and Vaporization
Lab 13 Velocity of Waves

Contact Kyle Forinash, kforinas@ius.edu, for comments/suggestions/corrections.