Guidelines For Lab Reports

The objective of a lab report is to describe what you have done in the laboratory to another scientist. Ideally, based on your report, another physicist should be able to reproduce what you did in your experiment. Basically it is important to communicate the purpose of the experiment, what you have done, how you have done it, what the results are, how the results relate (quantitatively) to your model of what you expected to happen, and what it all means. A very partial description of every part that should appear in your lab report is given in this guideline.

Abstract

The abstract should be no more than 200 words. It is intended to summarize very briefly what was measured, which technique was used and what results were obtained.

Introduction

In this section you should briefly describe the physics you are going to test. It is assumed that the theory is known already so a few lines are usually sufficient. (Spare yourself and the grader the boring and mindless reproduction of what is already in the lab manual.) Often you are testing the validity of an equation; it is important to define what you mean by every symbol you are using.

Description of Experimental Technique

In this section you should briefly describe the techniques used to perform the experiment.  Also include a description of the instrumentation used.  List in some detail exactly how you go about making measurements.  This should contain enough detail that should you need to go back a repeat this experiment you could do it from this description.  Also, if you feel that something may have gone awry, you should be able to figure out what may have happened from your detailed description of what you did.

Data

This should be pretty self explanatory.  But, you should also note anything that you may observe that could assist you should you find problems with your data.

Analysis

This section should include quantitative analysis of your data, including your error analysis.  Both random and systematic errors should be list here, and their estimated sizes determined.  This is really the heart of the work.

Discussion of Results

Finally, you should discuss how your results compare with your predictions.  This should be a quantitative discussion.  You should attempt to find possible and probable causes for any discrepancies between your results and the predictions.  You should also try to list possible ways to improve your measurements, either through using better technique or better equipment; identify the weak link or dominant source of error and think of some way to reduce that source.