Physics 261 University Physics Lab II, Sections 201 Spring 2011, Room 320 Science & Technology I Thursday 10:30-13:15 Instructor: Phil Rubin Office: 359 Science & Technology I Phone: 703.993.3815 (least effective) E-mail: prubin@gmu.edu (most effective) Office Hours: Wednesday 8:30-10:30; Thursday 9:00-10:00 Website: 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 com- 1
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). 2
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 Experiment Note 27 Jan Data Analysis (attendance mandatory) quiz and homework 03 Feb Standing Waves on a String 10 Feb No Lab 17 Feb Electric Field Mapping 24 Feb The Capacitor 03 Mar Resistors & Simple DC Circuits 10 Mar Resistors & Parallel DC Circuits 17 Mar Spring Break No Lab 24 Mar Kirchhoff s Laws & DC Circuits 30 Mar The Oscilloscope in-class assignment 07 Apr RC Decay 14 Apr Magnetic Fields 21 Apr LR Circuit full report 28 Apr Induction full report 07 Dec Final Exam (attendance mandatory) Grading: 3
Day-1 quiz & homework First 9 Experiments (6 points each) Last 2 Experiments (9 points each) Final test Total Preparation Results Write-up or assignment Preparation Results Report A+=100-96.67 A=96.66-93.33 A-=93.32-90 B+=89.99-86.67 B=86.66-83.33 B-=83.32-80 C+=79.99-76.67 C=76.66-73.33 C-=73.32-70 D=69.99-60 F<60 5 points 8 points 54 points 18 points 20 points 100 points 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 4
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. 5
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. 6
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. 7