Instructor: Dr. K. Forinash, Room: PS 101b
NOTE: Due to prior
commitments I will not be available after class (6 PM on Thursday). I can arrange to be here before class, other evenings, Fridays
day time and some weekends.
The purpose of this laboratory class is to improve your laboratory skills and to introduce you to additional concepts of laboratory measurement. You will notice that the instructions for these lab exercises are less detailed (or nonexistent!) compared to those you have had before.
You will need to spend 4-6 hours a week on this course. How many projects you complete will depend on which project(s) you decide to work on.
Students will work in pairs. The instructor is available for consultation but the students should do most of the work on their own (but if you have any doubts about what you are doing, before you destroy any equipment consult with the instructor).
Instead of turning in lab reports you will be graded weekly on the basis of your progress as recorded in a notebook. The notebook should be bound (not loose-leaf), do not skip any pages (no blank pages). Each completed lab report for an experiement should include the following:
Lab partners names.
The dates and times you worked on the lab (in or out of class) at the top of each page.
A description of the apparatus and procedure and an indication of the purpose of the experiment in your own words. This should be brief (outline form) but complete enough that someone else (for example another student) could use your report to duplicate the experiment. Diagrams are often helpful. A detailed list of equipment (name, model, type, etc.) chemicals, meters, etc. are useful.
References (anything you read, including web sites, regarding the project).
Explanation of the theory: How does the method you are using work? How do the instruments you are using work? What laws of physics are involved (brief explanation of each)? Why is what you are doing important to science?
Raw data (every number should have a set of units next to it).
An analysis of your results. This could might include; mean with a standard deviation, confidence limit, Q-test, relative error, and/or a graph (done with a computer program). See the instructor for advice on how to report the data.
A conclusion in your own words including: what you learned, sources of error, determination of which errors cause the greatest problems, ways to improve the experiment, explanation of whether your results support or do not support what you were trying to prove.
Suggestions for future work. Imagine next years' students will pick up where you left off using your lab book. Help them out by warning them of pitfalls, make suggestions for things you wanted to try but didn't get around to.
All research labs keep these kinds of detailed notebooks and they are often used as evidence in legal disputes over patent rights: Never erase or take anything out of your notebook and record your entries on consecutive, numbered pages (no skipped pages). You should allow two or three pages at the beginning for a table of contents which identifies and which pages of the notebook relate to that experiment.
Your grade will be based on:
a) how much time you spend on the projects,
b) the quality of your notebook entries (how complete the report is- see above),
c) how difficult a project you work on (you get more credit for tackling harder projects- even if they never work as long as you can give a good explanation why).
e) Any project leading to a published article or presentation earns an A+ for the course.
Some instructions, suggestions, further information and equipment are available for the projects listed below. You will have to search on the web or in the library for additional information in all cases (the instructor will show you how to search the APS journal web site).
Find a description (the Internet or the library) of the numbered possible lab exercises below and write a half page description of each one.
Find at least one other student to work with (no more than three to a group).
Find at least 4 hours per week (preferably more) in both your schedules when you can work together. Try to find a time slot where you have nothing immediately afterwards (there is nothing worse than being almost done and having to start over next time because you have to run off to something else).
Write these hours down on a sheet of paper and give them to the instructor.
Decide which lab you want to start with and tell the instructor. There is only one of each of the apparatus so first come first served.
Other Video capture and analysis projects using Tracker. For example you could video tape a walking or running human (or other creature) and analyze the forces, accelerations etc. of using video analysis software. You could compare the relative stress to joints of cycling versus running for example. M
The ELF/ULF project. For several years we have been trying to monitor very low (ULF or ultra low frequency region) electromagnetic signals. These are generated mainly by thunderstorm activity and submarine signals but it has recently been postulated that these signals may also indicate earthquake activity. We have a monitoring station at the edge of campus which needs several improvements. This would be a particularly good project for someone with computer skills. L
Millikan Oil-Drop. This is a short project which requires good eyesight. M
e/m (J.J. Tompson experiment). Measure the charge to mass ratio of an electron. S
Nuclear Decay. We may be able to do some simple decay measurements if we can get the necessary material. There will be a time lag between when you decide to do this and when we can get nuclear material delivered. S
Photo electric effect. You can get a value for Plank's constant using this equipment. S
Frank Hertz lab. We have two setups for this- mercury and helium. S
Laser Holography. New film and chemicals will need to be purchased. This project requires some photographic darkroom work. M
Kater Pendulum for measuring the acceleration of gravity. S/M
Computerized Cavendish balance experiment. M
Microwave Bragg reflection (microwave model of x-ray diffraction). S
Rutherford Scattering. We may not be able to do this one but talk to me if you are interested. S
Digital Spectrometer (visible). This is brand new so I don't really know what we can do with it. M
Coulomb and Current balance. Measure the electromagnetic constants epsilon and mu to find a value for the speed of light. S
You may also find your own project (subject to approval of the instructor), particularly if IUS already has the equipment or if the equipment can be purchased locally for less than a few hundred dollars. For ideas go to the library and look at recent editions of The Physics Teacher, American Journal of Physics or the Amateur Scientist section of older editions of Scientific American. I have information about the following projects in Scientific American:
Flat fluids (behavior of giant soap films).
Magnetometer (measure small fluctuations in the earths magnetic field).
Gravimeter (measure the gravitational fluctuations of the moon and sun).
Chaotic drips (create and make measurements of a chaotic system of dripping water).
Counting Atmospheric Ions.
Electric Field mill (build a detector and measure the earth's electric field).
Microbarograph (build a detector which can measure small fluctuations in the earth's atmospheric pressure due to storms).