Physics 261 Laboratory Spring 2005

University of Maryland

                                                                                 Updated on 5/1/05

Faculty

• Prof. Robert W. Gammon        
  Inst. for Phys. Sci. &  Tech. (IPST) 
• Room 1100, IPST Building
• Phone: (301) 405-4791
• Email: rgammon@umd.edu
• http://www.glue.umd.edu/~rgammon/
  
  

Teaching Assistants

   
    Guan-Yeu Chen
    Sections: 0101, 0102,
    e-mail: gychen@umd.edu

    Evan Ochsner
    Sections: 0104, 0106, 0111
    e-mail: evano@umd.edu

     Chris Osborne
    Sections: 0103, 0105, 0109
    e-mail:  cpo@umd.edu

    Peter Redl
    Sections: 0107, 0108, 0110
    e-mail: redlpete@umd.edu

   

TA schedule: All TA's will meet with the professor every Friday at 2 PM in Room Physics 3219. During this session the TA will prepare for the following week's lab.

During the initial week, Jan. 25-27,  each TA should familiarize herself/himself with experiments 0 through 4 during this week. The apparatus for all experiments will be set up in the lab during this first week.

Teaching Assistant Schedule

Spring 2005 Handout

Physics 261 is the laboratory associated with of Physics 260 and meets in room Phys-3219. This course carries one credit. You must pass Physics 260 as well as 261. If you do not pass 261 you will be required to repeat both 260 and 261. The grade for Physics 261 will be identical to that of Physics 260 (as required by the Engineering College) The labs meet for three hours a week and you will be expected to complete eight regular labs and two culminating laboratory activities. You must complete all of the labs, including the culminating labs in order to pass the course. You are expected to attend each class and will be allowed to make up labs only under exceptional circumstances. Lab 0 (spreadsheet) is also required and must be turned in before you attempt Experiment 1.

During the three hour laboratory period, you will have a brief introduction about the lab, perform the experiment, do your analysis and write-up and turn in your report. The experiment should take less than two hours to perform (including the introduction), but in order for you to complete your work in the allotted time you must read the lab write-up before coming to class and answer the prelab questions.

The Physics 261 laboratory uses spreadsheets (Excel) to analyze data. You therefore will be expected to use the spreadsheet the same way as any other tool in the lab. You should have been exposed to the spreadsheet in your engineering courses, but Experiment 0 offers a simple tutorial on spreadsheets in general and specifically Excel.

Our aim in this lab is to enhance the understanding of the laboratory experiments you perform while at the same time minimizing the amount of time spent on analysis and write-ups. This means, it is not necessary to do extensive write-ups. Overly long or padded lab reports will be penalized. Each week's lab includes a prelab assignment. The culminating labs are special labs where you will be given questions about a number of the labs you performed during the semester. The list of possible questions is included in the lab manual and you should review the ones for each lab after you have completed that experiment. This will make the culminating lab much easier! More questions may be handed out during the semester.

The course grade for Physics 261 will be determined as follows:

70% for the eight regular labs
30% for the culminating laboratories.
The scoring on the regular labs will be based approximately as follows:
Prelab 20% ( 0, 10%, 20%)
Data 40%
Analysis 25%
Questions 15%

The prelab will graded in units of 10%. In order to get 20% on the prelab you must make a sincere attempt to do the prelab completely. Incomplete or poorly done prelabs will be graded at either 0 or 10%. You will work with lab partners and will share data with them. However, you will be responsible for doing your own analysis and write-up. Each person in the group will also be required to demonstrate proficiency with the spreadsheet. You will be tested on this basic skill during the lab sessions. If by the end of the second lab, you cannot demonstrate to your teaching assistant the ability to do simple tasks on the spreadsheet your grade will be progressively reduced each week until you can. The point is: you must learn to use the spreadsheet. You must have the current lab manual (Fall 2003 edition) available at the bookstore.  Notice that corrections to this manual have been posted on the class web site in the link called Errata. Please take note of them.

The first labs will be held the week of February 2.

Lab Schedule

  Missed Labs

You must do and write up all labs. If you have missed a lab for an excused reason (illness, religious holiday, etc) try if possible to attend another lab that same week. Most TA's will be accommodating. If this fails, you may, with permission of the Professor, perform the lab during make-up week for that lab. Make sure that your write-up gets to the TA of your regularly scheduled section. (Put your name, section number and time it meets on all sheets.)

Let your regular TA know when and with whom you carried out a make-up lab. It is your responsibility to ensure that you are credited for all lab reports. Do not throw out returned lab reports until the semester is over.
 
 

Academic Integrity

The University is one of a small number of universities with a student-administered Honor Code and an Honor Pledge, available on the web at www.jpo.umd.edu/aca/honorpledge.html. The Code prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. Compliance with the code is administered by the Student Hour Council (phone: 314-9154) and it is expected that you will comply with the Code throughout your participation in the P261 laboratory activities.
 

CORE Requirements

CORE Lab Science Requirement: Lecture and Lab Courses, PHYS 260: GENERAL PHYSICS: VIBRATIONS, WAVES, HEAT, ELECTRICITY, & MAGNETISM (LECTURE) and PHYS 261: GENERAL PHYSICS: VIBRATIONS, WAVES, HEAT, ELECTRICITY, & MAGNETISM (LAB) must be taken in the same semester to count for CORE Lab Science. PHYS 260 taken alone will NOT count as a non-lab science for CORE.
 

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