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Syllabus
Physics 405 - Advanced Physics Laboratory
Department of Physics University of Maryland
Instructor: Dr. Wendell T. Hill, III
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Office: 2120 IPST |
Lab Hours: Tu 3:30-4, 5-5:30; W 1-3; Th 3-5 |
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Phone: 301-405-4813 |
(Additional office hours by appointment – phone or email) |
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Email: wth@umd.edu |
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TA: Matthew Paoletti
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Office: 3103B Physics |
Lab Hours: M 1-3, TuTh 11-12 & F 1-3 |
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Phone: 301-405-6189 |
(Additional office hours by appointment – phone or email) |
Email: paoletti@umd.edu |
Schedule: Instructor and TA lab hours are below.
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
8-9 |
lab opens
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lab opens
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lab opens
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lab opens
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lab opens
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9-10 | |||||
10-11 | |||||
11-12 | MP | MP | |||
12-13 | Lecture | ||||
1-2 | MP | WH | MP | ||
2-3 | MP | WH | MP | ||
3-4 | WH | WH | |||
4-5 | WH | ||||
5-5:30 |
lab closes
5:30
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lab closes
5:30
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lab closes
5:30
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lab closes
5:30
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lab closes
4:00
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The lab is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM and on Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. If you arrive before the door is open, ask Tom or Allen to open the lab for you. If you are the last person to leave one of the lab rooms, please close the door. If you are coming back, have Tom or Allen open the door again when you return. You must be done for the day at the time the lab closes. If you are not done taking data at 5:30 PM and you are signed up for the following day, leave a note on your experiment so that a staff member does not disassemble your experiment.
Laboratory Staff:
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Allen Monroe |
Office: 3311 Physics |
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Phone: x56002 |
Office Hour: 8AM-4PM M-F |
Email: amonroe@physics.umd.edu |
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Tom Baldwin |
Office: 3202 Physics |
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Phone: x56004 |
Office Hour: 9:30AM-6PM M-F |
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Email: tbald@physics.umd.edu |
Prerequisite: Physics 375
Lecture:
Wednesday 12:00-12:50,
Lecture Room 3112 Physics
Text and Materials:
Physics 405
Laboratory Manual – Department of Physics
AND at least one of the following:
Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences - Phillip R. Bevington and D. Keith Robinson (McGraw Hill, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-07-247227-8);
An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurement – John R. Taylor (University Science Books, 1997, ISBN 0-935702-75-X).
You will need TWO
(2) lab notebooks. Two are required so that you can work
in one notebook while the other is being graded. Acceptable lab
notebooks should be 8.5" x 11" or larger, should be bound (with spiral
or book binding), and have numbered, quad-ruled pages. Pages
should be permanent, not perforated for tear-out.
Lectures:
For approximately the first half to the semester there will be a 50 min
lecture from 12:00 – 12:50 in Rm. 3112 on Wednesdays. We will cover
error analysis, laboratory measurement techniques and any other
material germane to the course. You will be responsible for
understanding the material presented in lecture and, when appropriate,
expected to include some of this material in your notebook reports and
in your final formal report. If you miss a lecture you are responsible
for finding out from a classmate what was covered. The lecture
slot will be used for 15-minute presentations by students during the
second half of the course. Attendance is mandatory!
Experiments:
It is required that all students complete the work for 6 units, which
will typically consist of four to six experiments. Failure to complete
all 6 units will result in failing the class. Each
student is required to work on the experiments entirely by her/himself.
At the completion of each experiment, students are expected to hand in
the laboratory notebook for grading. This means that it will be
necessary to have at least 2 laboratory notebooks in order to have one
available while the other is being graded. Every attempt will be made
to grade your experiments promptly so that you will be able to improve
your next report before handing it in. The notebook reports are meant
to be your notes and documentation of your work in the lab, and are not
meant to be a formal write-up. (Please refer to the laboratory manual
for more information on the notebook reports.)
Your first experiment
must be a one-unit experiment. (in order to total six units, you must
therefore complete at least one other one-unit experiment). You
may do either zero, one, or two two-unit experiments. However,
you may not do all three of experiments VII, VIII, and IX (these are
too similar in their experimental methods).
Scheduling Experiments:
There will be a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board in Rm. 3210 on
which students will, each week, designate the experiment that they will
perform the following week. You may be signed up for only two days
at a time; it is strongly suggested that these days be consecutive,
so that your experimental setup may be saved.
Prior to carrying out
an experiment, you are required to complete the preparatory questions
at the start of the experiment. Write the answer to the prep questions
in your lab notebook. You must have the prep questions
examined and initialed by either the instructor or the TA before you
begin the experiment.
Formal Report:
One of the 4 to 6 notebook reports is to be rewritten as a formal
report and is to be turned in by Friday, December 16, 2005. Please
refer to the laboratory manual and the information here for the format of the formal report.
Fifteen-minute talks:
Each student will be expected to give one 15-minute talk on an
experiment of his or her choice. The talks will be followed by
questions from the instructor, the TA, and the other students.
Homework:
Several times during the semester a short set of homework problems will
be assigned. The purpose of these assignments is to review and
strengthen your understanding of the type of error analysis you will be
performing in your laboratories. These assignments will be graded on an
all or nothing scale, however you may attempt the assignment more than
once.
Grading:
Notebook reports (10 per unit) | 60 |
Homework | 15 |
Formal report | 15 |
15-minute talk | 10 |
TOTAL | 100 pts. |
Excuses:
If you have a valid excuse for missing a due date for a notebook report
or a 15 minute talk (e.g., you will be having an operation) see me to
make alternate arrangements, beforehand if at all possible. Ex post
facto (after the fact) excuses will require validation and may not be
acceptable. You must speak to me. Your TA does not have the authority
to excuse you from any required class activity.
Tips for Doing Well in 405:
Don't fall behind!
Read the lab manual
carefully before attempting an experiment.
Answer the preparatory questions in your notebook and have them checked
by the professor or TA before you begin the experiment.
Keep a complete log for the experiment including experimental diagrams
of measurement configurations actually used to obtain data, results,
estimates of various errors and limitations to the measurements,
analysis used to obtain final results and a proper estimate of all
errors including systematic errors as well as statistical errors.
Show clearly the reasoning that you used to arrive at various
conclusions. If your experimental result does not agree with the known
or accepted values, your reasoning may be the only clue that the TA or
the instructor has as to where you, or the experimental apparatus, went
wrong.
Important Dates:
First Class Lecture | Wednesday, August 31 |
Last Day for Schedule Adjustment | Wednesday, September 14 |
Last Day to Drop with a "W" | Wednesday, November 9 |
Thanksgiving Break | Thursday and Friday, November 24-25 |
Last Notebook Due | Wednesday, November 30 |
All Notebooks Due | Wednesday, December 7 by 6:00 PM |
Final Report Due | Friday, December 16 by 6:00 PM |
Tentative Schedule:
Dates | Subject | Reading Assignments | Due Dates* |
8/31 | Introduction |
Bevington Ch. 1 |
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9/7 | Lecture #1 | Bevington Ch. 2 Taylor Chs. 5, 10 & 11 |
Unit #1 Prelab
Questions Homework #1 |
9/14 | Lecture #2 | Bevington Ch. 3 Taylor Chs. 3, 5 & 7 |
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9/21 | Lecture #3 | Bevington Chs. 4
& 6 Taylor Chs. 8 & 12 |
Unit #1 Lab Notebooks |
9/28 | Lecture #4 | Bevington Ch. 7 & 8 | Homework #3 |
10/5 | Lecture #5 | Bevington Ch. 9 & 11 | Unit #2 Lab Notebooks |
10/12 | Homework #4 | ||
10/19 | Unit #3 Lab
Notebooks Homework #5 |
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10/26 | |||
11/2 | 15 Min. Talks | Unit #4 Lab Notebooks | |
11/9 | 15 Min. Talks | ||
11/16 | 15 Min. Talks | Unit #5 Lab Notebooks | |
11/23 | |||
11/30 | 15 Min. Talks | Unit #6 Lab Notebooks | |
12/7 | All Lab Notebooks (by 6:00 PM) | ||
12/16 | Final Report (by 6:00 PM) |
*All subsequent prelab questions must be completed and checked (initialed) by the TA or the instructor before you start your lab. The lab notebook due dates correspond to 1-unit labs. You will have twice as long to complete 2-unit labs. The due dates correspond to 12:00 noon unless otherwise specified.
Grading of Notebook Reports:
Your lab notebook should give a complete description of how you did
your experiment and how you analyzed your data. Another person
should be able to take your notebook and duplicate your experiment.
For the notebook
reports you must do the following:
1. Write in a real lab notebook: notebook should
be quad ruled, with numbered pages.
2. Write in ink. If you make a mistake, draw one
line through it - don't erase it, scratch over it, or use
white-out.
3. Staple/past/tape all graphs and analysis in notebook. Label axes. Include any formulas,
derivations, etc. needed to understand your graph.
4. Give a brief description of theory behind experiment.
5. Provide the actual circuit diagram you used to do the experiment (do not photocopy lab manual).
6. Provide a clear description of the procedure used to take data.
7. Provide the units of all numbers.
8. Provide and explain your estimate of the random and systematic
errors in all important quantities effecting your final result. Must
use proper error analysis techniques.
9. Pay attention to significant figures.
10. Analyze your data. Write down the methods you used. If you
use Mathematica, do
not simply paste your Mathematica notebook
into your lab notebook - write down in your lab notebook your
analysis steps. Compare statistical error with random error
(reduced χ2). Discuss.
11. Quote your results with final total error (including systematic
errors).
12. When appropriate, compare your answer to the expected value and
discuss discrepancies.
13. Be sure you have answered all the questions asked for in the lab
manual, including discussion questions at
end of unit.
14. Be sure you have done all the experiments you were asked to do.
Approximate Grading Scheme for lab reports
Procedure 2 pts (includes prep questions)
Analysis of data 3 pts
Error analysis 3 pts
Everything else on above list 2 pts
Late reports -5 pts /week
No report F in whole class
Last modification Wednesday August 31, 2005