Physics 261 University Physics Lab II, Sections 201
Spring 2011, Room 320 Science & Technology I
Thursday 10:30-13:15
Instructor:
Office:
Phone:
E-mail:
Office Hours:
Website:
Phil Rubin
359 Science & Technology I
703.993.3815 (least effective)
prubin@gmu.edu (most effective)
Wednesday 8:30-10:30; Thursday 9:00-10:00
http://physics.gmu.edu/~rubinp/courses/261/
Please note: All e-mail communication from the instructor concerning this
course will be to GMU accounts only.
Course Goals: This course is designed to develop experimental skills and to
enhance understanding of material presented in PHYS 260 (Electromagnetism)
by performing, analyzing data from, and presenting results from experiments.
PHYS 161 is a pre-requisite, and PHYS 260 is co-requisite, to PHYS
261.
An important emphasis of the course is the appropriate use of numbers and
experimental uncertainties. The student will make extensive use of spreadsheet
software, such as Excel, to display and analyze experimental data. Another priority is inculcating the practices and ethics of scientists, including care in making
of measurements and the accuracy and completeness of records in laboratory
notebooks. Finally, writing will be stressed in the form of the development of
constructing reports.
Each laboratory station is equipped with a PC and necessary software. Computers are to be used only for experiment-related tasks, and may in no case be
used for any purpose until the pre-experiment lecture is over. Unauthorized
use of a computer, including the reading of e-mail and web surfing,
will be considered disruptive behavior and penalized accordingly. It
is expected that experiments will be done collaboratively, and after the completion of an experiment, results may be e-mailed to personal accounts and related
files saved on memory sticks. Additional computing facilities are available on
campus.
Lab Manual: Write-ups and instructions, in acrobat reader (pdf) format, for
each experiment will be available for download at the course website, http:
//physics.gmu.edu/~rubinp/courses/261/. You must print these out and
review them before each class. Lab computers and printers may not be
used for this purpose.
Notebooks: Notebooks are assumed to contain complete records of experiments. A notebook, of the sort without loose papers, is required. A bound com1
position notebook is preferred, a spiral notebook is acceptable, but a three-ring
binder is not. Pages in the notebook should be numbered consecutively, either
by the manufacturer or by hand, and never removed from the notebook. Entries
should never be erased or blacked/whited out. A single line through a
mistake is all that is necessary. The notebook must be brought to every
class meeting; failure to do so results in a grade of zero (0) for the
work of that experiment.
Lab Groups: Students will work in groups of 2-3, selected and assigned by
the instructor before each experiment. Every member of a group should be
involved in conducting experiments.
Pre-Experiment Lecture: A short lecture will introduce each experiment.
All students are expected to arrive on time and miss no portion of this lecture.
No one missing this lecture may conduct the experiment and no results related to it may be turned in for credit. Late arrivals will lose
all preparation points for that day’s experiment.
Preparation: Before every experiment, you must review the lab
manual and enter into your notebook the following:
1. The title of the experiment, the date, and the names of all lab partners.
2. A statement of the purpose of the experiment, the derivation of all important equations, and an outline of the approach to be taken.
These entries and a copy of the lab manual instructions must be
exhibited to the instructor before the pre-experiment lecture begins.
Results: Each student must show the instructor before leaving the
classroom that the following material is in his or her notebook:
1. Sketch(es) of the apparatus with parts labeled.
2. Sketches of graphs indicating that the data have been checked for obvious
mistakes.
3. Summarized data, including correct uncertainties and units.
4. Calculations, with results clearly indicated; the results of these must have
appropriate significant figures, uncertainties, and units.
5. A brief statement in words of the results of the expriment and a conclusion
summarizing what was done and what the outcome(s) was(were).
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Write-ups: As a result of the student’s preparation and classwork, each notebook should contain sufficient information to complete a report on the experiment (see outline at the end of the syllabus and an example report on the
course web site). Two such reports (2-4 pages each) will be written near the
end of the term. For each experiment, except the introduction to the oscilloscope, completed before these, one section of a report will be assigned and due
the following week. The instructor will announce which section to write in an
e-mail message following the experiment.
Final Test: A final test will be given at the last scheduled meeting of the
course, 5 May 2011. It will examine all aspects of the experiments you did,
including procedures, analysis, and devices and software used. The test will
be open-book, open-notebook. Lab instructions may be brought to the test, as
well.
Tentative Schedule:
Date
27 Jan
03 Feb
10 Feb
17 Feb
24 Feb
03 Mar
10 Mar
17 Mar
24 Mar
30 Mar
07 Apr
14 Apr
21 Apr
28 Apr
07 Dec
Experiment
Data Analysis (attendance mandatory)
Standing Waves on a String
Note
quiz and homework
No Lab
Electric Field Mapping
The Capacitor
Resistors & Simple DC Circuits
Resistors & Parallel DC Circuits
Spring Break
Kirchhoff’s Laws & DC Circuits
The Oscilloscope
RC Decay
Magnetic Fields
LR Circuit
Induction
Final Exam (attendance mandatory)
Grading:
3
No Lab
in-class assignment
full report
full report
Day-1 quiz & homework
First 9 Experiments (6 points each)
8 points
54 points
Preparation
Results
Write-up or assignment
2 points
2 points
2 points
Preparation
Results
Report
2 points
2 points
5 points
Last 2 Experiments (9 points each)
18 points
Final test
Total
20 points
100 points
A+=100-96.67
B+=89.99-86.67
C+=79.99-76.67
A=96.66-93.33
B=86.66-83.33
C=76.66-73.33
D=69.99-60
F<60
A-=93.32-90
B-=83.32-80
C-=73.32-70
Attendance: There are NO lab makeups and no work will be accepted from
attendance at other sections. Your name may not appear on any results based
on a experiment you missed or to which you did not contribute. If an absence
is excused on the basis of justifying documentation, grades on other work are
pro-rated. Otherwise, a zero (0) is assigned for the work of a missed class.
Tardiness: No work due by the beginning of a class meeting (this includes
write-ups and preparation) will be accepted after class begins. No one arriving
after the pre-experiment lecture will be permitted to complete the experiment
with reference to which the lecture is being given.
Disruptive Behavior: No misbehavior of any sort, including cell-phone use,
unauthorized computer use, and eating or drinking in the laboratory, will be
tolerated. Such actions are grounds for dismissal from the classroom and the
assignment of a zero (0) for the work of that class meeting. Cell phones must
be turned off before entering the classroom and remain off and out of sight
throughout the class meeting.
Cheating: Cheating of any sort, as determined by the instructor, will result
in an automatic F in the course, without recourse to appeal. Cheaters will be
reported to the honor council for further disciplinary action. Regardless of the
results of any hearing, the failing grade stands. Don’t cheat. Don’t even
look like you’re cheating.
The GMU Honor Code: http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/9798/honorcod.
html#code
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Only those participating in an experiment may report on the experiment and
get credit for completing the experiment. Working in groups to get results
is expected, but preparation, notebook entries, and write-ups must be completed individually. Never let anyone else write in your notebook. Written work
containing sentences identical to those of another person’s will be considered
plagiarized.
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Lab Report Outline
Title of Experiment
Name of Author
Date
Abstract: A brief statement summarizing what was done, why, and giving
the principal results. It should be complete enough so that one need not read
the paper to understand the abstract. Everything in the abstract is repeated,
but with more elaboration, in the paper. The purpose of the abstract is to
allow the reader to determine whether or not it will be worth the while to read
the entire paper.
Introduction
The introduction provides the background and theory motivating the experiment. Important physical principles that may be used later in the paper should
be explained in a general way. Key derivations that lead to predictions should
be referenced and included as appendices.
Experiment
The experiment must be described thoroughly but concisely. The description
should cover all apparatus used (diagrams of experimental arrangements, if helpful) and a short discussion of techniques and procedures. This latter discussion
only needs to be sufficiently detailed to reveal both the strengths and weaknesses
of the work. This section may be divided into two, Apparatus and Procedures.
Data and Analysis
Present data, observations, and results in tabular and/or graphical form. Include a description of any mathematical manipulations of the data. If it might
help to show sample calculations, they should be referenced and included as
appendices. This section may be divided into two.
Results
Final results include limits of uncertainty and a comparison of experiment with
theory. Graphs comparing data points with theoretical curves belong here, but
judgments as to the significance of the results do not. Results stand or fall as
supported by the data and analysis, irrespective of your opinion.
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Discussion
Draw conclusions about the results. While speculations are sometimes appropriate in this section, opinion must be carefully distinguished from conclusions
that are supported completely by evidence.
References
This is a bibliography or list of footnotes, if any.
Appendix
Contains material, if any, that elaborates on or supplements what is in the
body of the paper, such as derivations of important relationships and sample
calculations.
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