Perception, Photography and Visual Phenomena Laboratory

Syllabus - Spring 2004

Professor Young S. Kim

Course description: PHYS 107 - Light, Perception, Photography and Visual Phenomena Laboratory. Two hours of laboratory per week. Credit cannot be used towards the minimum requirements for a major in physics or astronomy. PHYS 107 is the laboratory that accompanies PHYS 106. Laboratory experiments include geometrical optics (lenses, cameras, eye), optical instruments, photography, perception, color phenomena, and wave phenomena.

Corequisite: PHYS 106.

Required Text: Physics 107 Lab Manual

Meeting CORE requirements: Please note that you must also be enrolled in Physics 106 in order to receive credit for a CORE physical sciences laboratory course. This is important, so make sure that you are enrolled in both Physics 106 and Physics 107.

Instructor: Professor Young S. Kim. Dr. Kim is a Professor of Physics. He usually can be found in his office (Room 4122 in the Physics Building. Just give him a call at 556024 and set up a time to meet, or send him an email to yskim@physics.umd.edu.
Click here for Professor Kim's home page. He loves the subject he teaches.

Teaching Assistants

  • Hock Seng Goh
    • email: hsgoh@glue.umd.edu
    • phone: 405-6195
    • office: 4223
    • office hours:
  • Ram Sriharsha
    • email: harsha@glue.umd.edu
    • phone:
    • office:
    • office hours:

Lab Schedule

  • Sec. 0101 (Mon 15:00-16:50) Sriharsha
  • Sec. 0301 (Tue 11:00-13:50) Kim
  • Sec. 0401 (Tue 13:00-14:50) Sriharsha
  • Sec. 0501 (Wed 11:00-12:50) Goh
  • Sec. 0601 (Wed 15:00-16:50) Goh
All Lab sessions are held in Room 3214.

Remember

  • Prelabs are due when you walk into the lab.
  • Quizzes can be answered as soon as you enter the lab and are due five minutes after the start of class.
  • All lab reports are due at the end of class. It is required that you personally hand the report to your instructor before leaving the classroom. Your instructor will then check off your name so that in the unlikely event that your report is lost, we have a record that you turned it in. It is your duty to make sure that your instructor has checked off your name before leaving the classroom. Late lab reports will not be accepted under any circumstances.

Lab Write-Up

At the end of each lab period, each student must turn in a write-up of their lab work. The questions that you must answer are imbedded in the text that describes how the lab is to be done. Each of your answers must be written out in full sentences and be self-contained. It should not be necessary for the grader to refer to the lab manual in order to determine what it is you are trying to answer or explain. Answering a question with just a number or just "yes" or "no" is never enough to receive full credit. The text is broken up into topics, T1, T2, T3, etc. Be very careful, as you read the lab, that you find all the questions, and that you answer them fully, completely, and neatly. You should provide your own paper on which to write up the lab. Include the experiment number, date, and your lab partner's name on your write-up. For each lab, write a brief summary of what you think are the most important optical results you obtained as the final section of your lab report. Use proper grammar and spelling.

Grading: Prelab: 2 points each - 20 points total

Quizzes: 2 points each - 20 points total

Lab reports: The write-ups will be checked to see how much of the required work you have completed. For each report, your report will be graded with the maximum of 20 points. If you complete all the labs, the total sum will be 220.

At the end of the semester, if your percentage point is above 90, your grade will be A. If more than 80% of, B. If more than 70, C. If more than 60, D. If less than 60, your grade will be F.

- Be sure to complete all eleven labs! Failure to complete one lab will decrease your final score by one letter grade for each lab that you miss.

General Advice:
Don't forget that the prelab is due when you walk in the lab.
Classes at Maryland start right on the hour and students are expected to be in the lab when the period begins. Don't be late. You will need to complete your quiz in the first five minutes of class and then your instructor will say a little bit about the lab in the next five or ten minutes. If you miss the quiz and the introduction, then you may have to make up the lab. later
When you are working on an experiment, by all means have fun, but try to keep focused on your work. You have two hours to finish up and, although that leaves some time for playing and making mistakes, you'll find that it's not a lot of time.
Save all of your old prelabs, quizzes and lab reports until at least you have received your official grade in the class. Mistakes (missing scores) can happen, and the best defense is keeping your work.

Making up labs:
If you miss a lab, you should try to make it up the same week by going to another section. It is up to the TA to admit you to the section, subject to the availability of space. If you cannot make up a lab in the same week, then you must schedule to make up the lab during one of the two scheduled make-up times (see schedule below). You will have to provide documentary evidence supporting you reason for missing the lab session. Valid excuses are described in your manual. If you miss one of the first 5 experiments, you must make it up during the first makeup week.

Important Dates

  • (Jan 26 - 30). First week of classes, no labs
  • (Feb 2 - 6). 8-12 Experiment I: Camera Obscura
  • (Feb 9 - 13). Experiment II: Pinhole Camera
  • (Feb 16 - 20). Experiment III: Light: Reflection, Mirrors andImages
  • (Feb 23 - 27). Experiment IV: Light: Refraction
  • (Mar 1 - 5). Experiment V: Images: Shaped Surfaces, Simple Lenses
  • (Mar 8 -12). Make-Up LabWeek
  • (Mar 15 - 19). Experiment VI: More Simple Lenses
  • (Mar 22 - 26). Spring Vacation
  • (Mar 29 - Apr 2). Experiment VII: The Camera and the Human Eye
  • (Apr 5 - 9). Experiment VIII: Polarized Light
  • (Apr 12 - 16) Experiment IX: Light: Interference
  • (Apr 19 - 23). Experiment X: Light: Diffraction
  • (Apr 26 - 30). Experiment XI: Diffraction Gratings, Color, and Holography
  • (May 3 - 6). Make-Up Lab Week