Rules and Guidelines
Experimental work forms an integral part of a scientist's education and as such should
be given its due importance. Practical course PHY1100 has been designed with this
view in mind. Students are reminded that a pass in PHY1100 is required in order to be
allowed to proceed with the undergraduate programme.
This booklet contains copies of laboratory work sheets for the experiments currently
available. You are to perform the required number of experiments (see below for
details) over the academic year. To enhance the quality of work and its educational
value, a few rules and guidelines have been drawn up with which you should become
familiar before starting the course.
You will be required to submit reports on each experiment performed. Each report
should include the hardcopy report accompanied with a filled in plagiarism form,
additionally a softcopy should also be sent to labs.physics@gmail.com. Students failing
to conform will be awarded zero marks for the session in question. For missed
laboratory sessions a zero mark will be given unless a medical certificate (maximum of
two) is presented to a coordinator or demonstrator of the study-unit. The mark awarded
for the course will be set by the average mark of the laboratory sessions (i.e. the reports)
including potential zero marks for sessions where no medical certificate was presented.
Reports should be concise and to-the-point. Regurgitation of experimental procedures
and precautions already written down in the experiment sheets is strongly discouraged
and will adversely affect your marks. You are to regard your laboratory report as a
research scientist would regard his/hers, i.e., giving relevant details, recording readings
and observations, listing special precautions (and backing these with valid scientific
arguments wherever possible), manipulation of equations and approximations, analysis
of results, error estimates and conclusions. Remember, however, that you are not
writing a research paper and that therefore you must not write your reports in the
conventional essay form! A clear, concise point-form would reflect more closely the
day-to-day work of a scientist. However, the use of figure numbers and captions is
highly recommended as this assists in the readability of your reports.
Each student is required to attend the laboratory sessions with a laboratory coat and a
log book (ruled hardbound A4 booklet).
Students are to form groups of two (or three, subject to the approval of the course
coordinator) at the start of the first semester and the partners in each group are to stay
together for each practical session. Change of partners is to be considered only in
exceptional circumstances and, in any case, prior approval must be obtained from the
coordinator of the course and the head of department. Each member of the group is
expected to contribute equally to the smooth running of the experiment, but report
writing and working should be conducted separately and only in consultation with each
other. Each student is responsible for their laboratory report and copying of reports will
be severely dealt with.
Your demonstrators will inform you in advance which experiment you will be
performing in the coming sessions. You should therefore find time to read the relevant
experiment sheet carefully and perhaps consult textbooks and/or scientific literature in
order to better prepare yourselves beforehand for the task.
Students arriving more than 15 minutes after the start of the session will not be
admitted and will be given zero marks for that particular laboratory session.
Students are expected to check in advance what practical they have been assigned for
the following session.
Students will not be allowed to make use of the laboratory outside the time allotted
for the laboratory session.