Experimental Physics - 78235                                               Spring 2001

 

Instructors:

Course lecturer and supervisor: Peter Persans, SC 1C10, x2934, email: persap@rpi.edu

Office hours: I will be available in SC3C14 or SC1C10 during morning lab hours on Mon. and Thurs..

Graduate TA (grading, lab oversight, tutoring): Yury Varshavsky

Undergraduate TA’s: Katie Barbieri, Ben Fisher, and Caithlin O'Brien.
They will be available during their posted lab hours for assistance with specific experiments. Click here for detailed information on when your TAs will be in the lab, and how to contact them.

 

The objectives of this course are to give you in-depth experience in: 1) experimental design and logic; 2) analysis of data including uncertainties and statistics; 3) presentation of results.  I have attempted to distribute experiments so that you will be exposed to a breadth of measurement techniques and new and interesting physics that are useful in the modern lab.  We have also attempted to choose the physical basis of the experiments so that you will learn new physics in various fields.

 

This course is very different from any others you have taken here.  What you take from it will depend much more on your independent work.  None of the experiments are “cook book”, there are always several ways to take an experiment another step further.  To successfully complete an experiment it will be necessary to read the notes and perhaps some of the ancillary materials before you come to the lab.  You can learn a lot from the TA’s and from me by asking questions and interacting with us as much as possible.

 

Class hours: 

            Lecture:           TWF             10:00-10:50  ACAD 2800    through ~Feb. 9

            Laboratory       Mon or Thurs    8am-10:50 and 2+             SC3C14 starting Mon Jan 22

Note: We will reorganize laboratory sections in class on Friday Jan 12.

Note: Although the official lab hours are 8-11 and 2-3, you should expect to work in the lab about 6 hours per week for a satisfactory experience.  You can work in the laboratory after-hours by arrangement as noted in the “Laboratory Organization” section of this syllabus.

 

Course materials:

Textbook:  We will use “Experimental Physics 78235 Course Notes” by Jim Napolitano.  Copies are available in the Rensselaer Union Bookstore for <$20.  Or by by downloading from http://www.rpi.edu/dept/phys/Courses/PHYS2350/books.html.

Laboratory notebooks:  You will need two laboratory notebooks for recording and analyzing data.  (You will use the second notebook while the first is being graded.)  The “Department of Physics” spiral-bound notebook (~$4 ) is satisfactory.  The sewn-pages “Computation Notebook” ( ~$12) is closer to a professional standard and will serve you well in later experimental work. Both are available in the bookstore.

Plotting and analysis software:  The textbook gives examples in MATLAB, a useful and popular computation, analysis, and plotting program.  MATLAB is available for use on RCS or you can buy a personal copy for your PC or MAC at the ITS center for $95.

 

Grading:

Your course grade depends on your performance in many areas.  The approximate breakdown is as follows:

Homework	~10%
Two short (1 wk) lab experiments and write ups	~20%
Three standard (two wk) experiments and write-ups	~45%
Final lab report (3 wk lab + full write-up)	~25%

Your active participation in laboratory as noted by the laboratory TA’s and myself will be taken into consideration (up to 10%) in your final grade.

There are no formal examinations but I will discuss your work with you throughout the course and include my evaluation of your preparation and knowledge for the 10% mentioned above.

The write-up grade you receive will be mostly for content, but clarity and presentation are important to the communication of content and will count directly for at least 10% of the lab grade.

All lab write-ups should be handed in to the graduate teaching assistant for the course.  You will be penalized 10% for one day late, 20% for up to 3 days late... 

 

Course structure:

The course consists of two related parts.  I will give approximately 5 weeks of lecture on basic laboratory practice, safety, basic physics and experimental techniques, analysis techniques, and statistical analysis.  I will assign, collect, and grade four homework sets associated with this portion of the course.

Experimental work will commence in the third week of classes.  You will work in laboratory groups of two (or three to accommodate an odd number of students).  You will perform a total of six experiments.  You will start with two “mini-experiments” which require just one “lab-day” (one week) each for completion.  You will then have three “standard” experiments for which you will have two lab-days (two weeks) each.  You will hand in only a short write-up and your notebook for the two mini-experiments.  For the standard lab experiments, you will hand in a formal write-up (described below).  Finally, you will complete an extended experiment (three-four weeks) for which a full formal write-up will be required (described below).

 

Academic Honesty:

You are expected to collaborate on all aspects of this course.  Collaboration means performing your share of the work, preparing properly so as not to disadvantage your partners, and discussing your ideas openly.  The majority of the grade involves experiments performed with partners.  You are permitted to discuss any aspect of your work with anyone, but what you hand in must clearly be your own work.  All work must be handed in individually.  Simply copying your partner’s notes will result in a grade of zero for that experiment.  I will discuss suspected cases of copying with you before taking action.

 

Laboratory notebooks and write-ups

Aspects of good notebook practice are discussed in the book.  Part of your grade will depend on the quality of your notebook entries.  Your notes for a specific experiment should start with a statement of your goals and perhaps a short description of the steps you intend to carry out.  You should include a complete description of the apparatus with a physical and a logical sketch of the apparatus.  You should then write down what you do as you do it. You should also include brief descriptions of your logical steps or thinking at each point.  You can always choose to neglect extra information in your written report, but you can’t add information that you didn’t record in your notebook.

Short write-ups (2 mini-labs):  You will hand in your notebook.  In a clearly written separate report you should summarize your measurements including data analysis and results sections.  Treatment of uncertainties is essential.  Appropriate graphical display of information is important.

Formal write-up (3 standard labs):  You will hand in your notebook plus a neatly-written formal write-up including a) the title, b) an abstract summarizing the object and results in less than 100 words, c) experimental set-up, d) procedure and e) data summary, f) discussion of any analysis, and e) conclusion sections.  The format for these sections is discussed in Chapter 1 of the book.  Selected data and graphics should be included in the report body.

Formal write-up for the 3-week final experiment:  Same procedure as the short formal write-up, except that you will include all of the sections discussed in Chapter 1 (Introduction and Theory, Interpretation and Discussion, References, Appendices.)

 

Lectures:

Number	Topics	Reading
1	Course organization, Notebooks, Logic, Presentation	Ch 1
2	Uncertainties, error analysis	Ch 6
3	Safety Issues	handouts
4	Statistical Analysis of Data	Ch 9
5	Statistical Analysis of Data	Ch 9
6	Statistical Analysis of Data	Ch 9
7	Noise and Noise Reduction	Ch 13
8	Measurement of distance, time, frequency	notes
9	Measurement of Current, Charge, Voltage, Resistance, C, L	2, 3
10	Electronic instruments	3
11	Light sources and detectors	11
12	Particle detection – instruments	17
13	Spectroscopy	12
14	Particle detection - logic and physics	17
15	Breathing room

 

Laboratory Experiments:

Ref.	Name	Mini-lab description
4	Voltage Divider	Measure and analyze only the gain and phase shift for a simple high -or low- pass filter
7	Gravitational Acceleration	Complete experiment, limited analysis of first order corrections.
8	Gas Dielectrics	Determine e of CO2
10	Resistivity	Determine resistivity of pure Al at room T.
12	Atomic Spectroscopy	Calibrate monochromator and determine RH
14	Johnson Noise	None
15	Faraday Effect	Determine Verdet constant of water using only the oscilloscope
18	Radioactivity (Geiger Counter)	Demonstrate Poisson statistics
19	Positron Annihilation	None
20	Compton Effect	Measure scattered photon energy as a function of angle.

 

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Undergraduate TA Hours

Your TAs will be available on Mondays and Thursdays as scheduled below. If you would like to work in the lab on a day or time when they are not scheduled to be there, you can e-mail them to make an appointment.
CAUTION: Even TAs have lives outside of lab. Please try to contact them as soon as you know you'll need them to be in the lab during off-hours. For example, don't wait until Thursday afternoon to ask us if we can come in on Friday afternoon. (You can always ask, but the chances will be slim.)
We can't guarantee that we'll be available every time someone asks us, but we DO promise to try.

Contact Info:
Katie Barbieri, barbik@rpi.edu
Ben Fisher, fisheb@rpi.edu
Caithlin O'Brien, caithlin@rpi.edu

TIME	Available TAs (Monday and Thursday)
8:00 AM	Katie Ben Caithlin
9:00 AM	Katie Ben Caithlin
10:00 AM	Caithlin
11:00 AM	Caithlin
12:00 PM	by appointment
1:00 PM	by appointment
2:00 PM	Ben Caithlin
3:00 PM	Ben Caithlin
4:00 PM	Katie