PHYSICS
405 COURSE DESCRIPTION
Spring 2015
Lecture Room 1402 Physics Building
Laboratory 3210 Physics Building
Physics 405 is an advanced undergraduate
laboratory course with experiments from many fields of modern physics for
physics majors. Students have full access to the experimental equipment and
establish their own work schedules and procedures with the guidance of faculty
and staff. Emphasis is on independent experiment organization, data
acquisition, data analysis, and scientific report preparation.
PREREQUISITE: Physics
375
LECTURES:
Wednesday 12:00-1:00 PM, Lecture Room 1219 Physics Building
COURSE WEB SITE:
http://www.physics.umd.edu/courses/Phys405/
INSTRUCTORS:
Professor Hassan Jawahery |
Phone: 301-405-6062 Office: 3208G Physical Science Building (PSC) Email: jawahery@umd.edu |
|
Professor Luis Orozco |
Phone: 301-405-9740 Office: 2201 Computer and Space Science
Building Email:
lorozco@umd.edu |
TEACHING ASSISTANT
Lvyuan Chen
Phone: 301-405-6093
Office: SB0333 John S. Toll Physics Building
Email: LChen.phy@gmail.com
Office/lab hours would be:
M,T,W,Th 1-5PM
LABORATORY STAFF
Mr. Allen Monroe |
Phone:
301-405-6002 |
Office: 3311 Physics Building |
Office Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. M-F |
Email: amonroe@physics.umd.edu |
|
Mr. Thomas Baldwin |
Phone: 301-405-6004 |
Office: 3202 Physics Building |
Office Hours: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. M-F |
Email: tbald@physics.umd.edu |
SCHEDULE:
Instructor and Teaching Assistant laboratory
hours will be announced in class and posted in the laboratory and on the course
web site.
The laboratories are open Monday through
Thursday from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and on Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00
p.m. The last person to leave a laboratory must close the door.
When returning to a laboratory, Mr. Monroe or Mr. Baldwin will open the door
again. Work is to be finished at the end of the laboratory period.
If data acquisition is not complete at 5:00 p.m. and the experiment is reserved
for the following day, a note should be left on the experiment to avoid its
being disassembled.
TEXT and REFERENCES:
Physics 405 Laboratory Manual – Department of
Physics, Fall 2008 edition.
This will be available electronically on the
Physics 405 web site. This version
is not available in print.
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).
Building Scientific Apparatus – J. H. Moore, C. C.
Davis, and M. A. Coplan (Cambridge University Press, Fourth Edition, 2009, ISBN
978-0-521-87858-6).
Two (2) laboratory notebooks are required so
that one is available for laboratory work while the other is being
graded. Notebooks are to be 8.5" x 11" or larger, with bound,
numbered, quad-ruled pages that are permanent and unperforated.
LECTURES:
There will be a one-hour lecture from 12:00
– 1:00 p.m. in room, 1219 Physics Building every Wednesday during the
course of the semester. The lectures will cover error analysis, laboratory
measurement techniques, vacuum technology, detectors, basic electronics, signal
analysis and other topics germane to experimental physics. Students are
responsible for understanding the material presented in lecture and, when appropriate,
including this material in notebook reports and in the final formal report.
Students missing a lecture are responsible for obtaining the lecture material
from classmates. During the latter part of the course, the lecture period will
be used for 12-minute student presentations. Attendance at the
Wednesday lectures and presentations is mandatory. The lecture and presentation
schedule will be posted on the course website.
EXPERIMENTS:
To pass the course, you must complete four
experiments, with at least two from group B experiments. Completion is defined as performing the laboratory
work, data analysis, and submitting a laboratory notebook for grading.
Failure to
complete four experiments will result in failing the class. Each student is
required to work on the experiments independently. At the completion of each
experiment the laboratory notebook must be submitted to the instructors for
grading. It is necessary to have at least two laboratory notebooks so that one is
available for laboratory work while the other is being graded. The notebooks
will be graded promptly so that improvements can be made in subsequent
experiments and reports. The notebook reports are meant to be the notes and
documentation of the work in the laboratory, and are not the Formal Report. (Please refer
to the laboratory manual for more information on the notebooks.)
SCHEDULING EXPERIMENTS:
There is an online sign-up sheet that can be
accessed from any computer with an internet connection or from the computer in
Rm. 3210. The url is http://www.physics.umd.edu/cgi-script/courses/p405.pl. Prior to carrying out an experiment,
the preparatory questions at the start of the experiment must be answered.
The answers are to be written in the laboratory notebook. You must have
the preparatory questions examined and initialed by either the instructor or
the TA before beginning the experiment.
Work on the experiments must be formally scheduled. Time slots are
available in half-day periods. In order to save an experimental setup,
two consecutive periods must be reserved. When an experiment has been
completed and data acquisition finished the experiment must be dismantled.
DUE DATES FOR THE NOTEBOOK REPORTS:
Notebook reports are due according to the schedule
shown in the syllabus. There is a 2-point penalty, out of a total of 20 points, per day for
late reports.
FORMAL REPORT:
A formal report on the second experiment is required
and is to be submitted according to the schedule below. The format of the
formal report is given in the laboratory manual and on the Blackboard website.
ORAL PRESENTATION:
Each student is required to give a 12-minute
presentation on an experiment. The talks will be followed by questions
from students, the instructors, and TA. (10 minutes for the talk and 2 minutes
for questions).
HOMEWORK:
During the semester homework problems will be
assigned. The purpose of these problems is to review and strengthen
understanding of error analysis that will be used in the interpretation of
data, as well as provide experience with experimental topics.
GRADES:
Notebooks |
60% |
Homework |
5% |
Formal Report |
20% |
12-Minute Presentation |
15% |
|
|
Total |
100% |
VALID EXCUSES:
If you have a valid excuse for missing a
due date for a notebook report or a 12-minute presentation (e.g. a medical
emergency) see one of the Professors to make alternate arrangements,
beforehand. Ex
post facto (after the fact) excuses will require validation and may not be
acceptable. You must speak to one of the Professors. The TA does not
have the authority to make alternate arrangements.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (CHEATING):
Academic dishonesty is a serious offense that can
result in suspension or expulsion from the university. In addition to any other
action taken, the normal sanction is a grade of "XF", denoting
"failure due to academic dishonesty," and will normally be recorded
on the transcript of the offending student. Students are required to perform
all experiments, analysis, and write-ups independently. The experiments may be
discussed with other students, but each student must work independently..
TIPS FOR DOING WELL:
Read the laboratory manual carefully before
beginning an experiment. Answer the pre-laboratory questions in your notebook
and have them checked by the Professor or TA before beginning the experiment.
Keep a complete log for
the experiment including equipment diagrams, measurement configurations,
results, estimates of errors and limitations to the measurements, analysis used
to obtain final results and a proper estimate of all errors including systematic
as well as statistical errors.
Record
clearly the reasoning used to arrive at conclusions. If the experimental result
does not agree with the known or accepted value, documented reasoning may be
the only means for determining what went wrong. Additional information, a list of experiments, and more
detailed help can be found at the course website.
Good time management is essential for success in this class. Don't fall
behind! Don't wait until the last day to do an experiment!
IMPORTANT DATES:
First meeting: Wednesday, January 28; Introduction to the Laboratory |
|
|
First Class Lecture: Wednesday, February 4 |
Spring Break: March 16 – March 22 |
|
Last day of Classes: Tuesday, May 12 |
|
TENTATIVE
SCHEDULE (subject to revision)
Dates |
Lecture Period Topic |
Reading |
Due Dates |
1/28 |
Introduction to Experiments |
Laboratory Manual |
Unit #1 Prelab* |
2/04 |
Lecture 1 Radiation Safety |
|
|
2/11 |
Lecture 2 Statistics Random/Systematic Errors |
Bevington Ch. 1-2
,
Taylor Ch. 3,4,5,10,11 |
Homework #1 Preliminary report Exp#1 |
2/18 |
Lecture 3 Vacuum Technology |
Building Scientific
Apparatus,
Ch. 6 |
Expt #1 Notebook Homework #2 |
2/25 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Homework #3 |
3/04 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Preliminary report Exp#2 |
3/11 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Expt #2 Notebook |
3/18 |
Spring Break |
|
|
3/25 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Experiment 1 or 2 Formal
Report |
4/01 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Preliminary report Exp#3 |
4/08 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Expt #3 Notebook |
4/15 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
|
4/22 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Preliminary report Exp#1 |
4/29 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
Expt #4 Notebook |
5/06 |
12 Min. Presentations |
|
|
*All pre-laboratory questions
must be completed and checked (initialed) by the TA or an instructor before
laboratory work can start. Reports
are due at 12:00 noon on Wednesdays.
NOTEBOOKS:
Laboratory notebooks must include a complete
description of how the experiment was performed and the way the data were
analyzed. Other scientists should be able to take the notebook and duplicate the
experimental results. Below is a list of the essential elements of the notebook
report:
á Notebook
reports written in ink in a laboratory notebook with quad-ruled, numbered
pages. Mistakes are not to be erased, scratched over or covered with White-Out.
A single line is to be drawn through mistakes.
á All
graphs stapled, pasted or taped in the notebook. Graph axes labeled with units.
Formulas, derivations, and discussions necessary to understand the graphs
included.
á A
brief description of theory of the experiment followed by a clear description
of the procedure used to take data. Schematic diagrams of the experimental
arrangement along with circuit diagrams of electronics. Raw data in tabular form with units and
proper significant figures.
á Units
for all numbers with appropriate significant figures.
á Estimates
of random and systematic errors and the justification for the estimates.
á Analysis of the data using proper error
analysis and a description of the analysis methods. If Mathematica is used, include the
analysis steps in addition to the Mathematica notebook included in the laboratory
notebook.
á Comparison
of statistical error with random error (reduced c2).
á Final
results with total error (including systematic errors), comparison of the final
results with expected values and a discussion of discrepancies.
á Answers
to all questions in the Laboratory Manual including discussion questions.
á All
parts of the experiments completed.
NOTEBOOK REPORT FORMAT AND GRADING:
Procedure (including preparatory questions) 2 points
Preliminary report
4 points
Raw data (including tables, plots) 4 points
Analysis (including errors and final results) 7 points
Remaining topics listed above 3 points
Two points will be subtracted from any report grade for
each day late. Failure to submit all reports will result in an F for the
course.
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Last
Modified January 23, 2015