Physics 221

Intermediate Laboratory


Class: TR 12:45 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., N-211
Professor: G.P.Gilfoyle; Office: Gottwald Science Center, N-106 ; phone: 289-8255; electronic mail: ggilfoyl@richmond.edu; Office hours are posted on the door of N-106. Other times are by appointment.
Objective: To gain an understanding of experimental methods and analysis.
Safety: SAFETY FIRST! Always be very careful. If you are unsure ASK! If you are taking any medications or your motor skills are impaired for any other reason, do not perform the experiment and consult with me.
Textbooks: Experimentation: An Introduction to Measurement Theory and Experiment Design (required) by D.C. Baird, Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics by Serway and Beichner or some equivalent text (recommended), Modern Physics by Rex and Thornton (recommended).
Prerequisites: Physics 132.
Course Work: Each class meeting will consist of some combination of lecture, demonstration, laboratory work, or student presentation (see SCHEDULE).
Attendance: Attendance at all classes is expected. An excused absence is one given by the dean, a doctor, or a department. An excusable absence is one that the instructor excuses for what he deems to be sufficient reason. A student is responsible for all work missed during an absence.
Grading: Grades will be computed on the following basis:


  Written experiment reports 25%
  Oral progress reports 20%
  Laboratory notebook 20%
  Project Poster 15%
  Project Introduction 5%
  Project Theory Section 5%
  $\rm I^2$(Initiative and Independence) 10%


Poster: A poster is required for presentation at the University of Richmond Student Symposium pending approval of the instructor. The poster presents the problem, it's physical significance, a discussion of the experimental apparatus, techniques used, and results and analysis.
Oral reports: Weekly 5-10 minute presentations will be required describing the progress of each student's experiments (see SCHEDULE). We will do half the class on Tuesday and the remainder on Thursday each week. See the article ``The Art of Talking About Science'' by L.Bragg in the journal Science, Vol 154, p. 1613 (1966) for advice.

Written reports: An experimental report will be required for each laboratory completed. The report will consist of 1-2 pages of text with additional pages for relevant figures, plots, and appendices. See Chapter 7 in Experimentation: An Introduction to Measurement Theory and Experiment Design for a full discussion of good scientific writing. The grade of each report will include the quality of the measurements and analysis and the efficiency in completing the experiment. The report will be due on the Tuesday after the lab is scheduled (you should perform about one lab per week). Check with me if you need more class time for the analysis or data collection. A lab report that is late will receive a progressively lower grade for each day that it is late. This is the greatest pitfall of this course. Students that fall behind have great difficulty catching up. Turn in your lab reports on time!
Laboratory Notebook: You must maintain a laboratory notebook. The notebooks will be collected and graded at the end of the semester. The following question should serve as a good guideline for developing a good laboratory notebook. ``If I pick up this notebook in a year or two, is there enough information in it for me to reproduce the experiment?'' You may want to use a loose-leaf binder to keep notes, plots, and calculations. Use notebook dividers to identify the different experiments. I have found it useful to keep an electronic text log and print it out at the end of a class or work session. This practice has the great feature that it is searchable. The following points are recommended.

  1. Record the date, title, partner, and page number.
  2. Briefly write down the general purpose of the experiment, description of procedures, and descriptions of data. Record any observations even if you do not plan to use them.
  3. Make a rough sketch of the apparatus. Do not spend a lot of time on this and do it only when it would be of help.
  4. Record all data in your lab notebook not on scrap pieces of paper! Do not erase data. You may indicate suspect data and your reasons, but do not erase it! You should indicate what is being measured and include units and uncertainty.
  5. Perform calculations, as you go along. It is much easier to repeat experiments on the spot than to try and come back and do it later. You should compare with accepted values as early as possible by calculating a percent error or percent difference.
  6. If you reach a conclusion record it and substantiate it. If more analysis is needed, it is easier to do it on the spot. The lab notebook will not be graded on neatness, but it must be readable.

Course Outline: The first three experiments will be done simultaneously by all students. Each one should take about two lab periods to complete and the lab report is due at the start of class on the following Tuesday. You will select then from the list of experiments below. There is only enough equipment for one set-up for each of the experiments so they will be conducted in a round robin fashion. Each experiment should take about two lab periods to complete.



Schedule Overview



Week Laboratory
1 Hydrogen Spectroscopy
2 P-T Relationship of a Gas
3 Nuclear Decay
4-9 Round Robin Laboratories:
  Fundamental Forces: Coulomb's Law
  Fundamental Particles I: The Charge of the Electron
  Fundamental Particles II: The Charge/Mass Ratio of the Electron
  Resonance and Radio: The LRC Circuit
  The Adiabatic Gas Law
  Seeing is Believing: Geometric Optics
10-13 Individual Projects
14 Contingency





Important Deadlines


Topics due Tuesday, February 17
Abstracts due Tuesday, February 24
Symposium Applications due Monday, March 1
Introductions due Tuesday, March 4
Theory section due Tuesday, March 16
Symposium Drafts Due Tuesday, April 6
Richmond Symposium Friday, April 16
Notebooks due Friday, April 23

Physics 221 Tentative Detailed Schedule


Spring 2004


Date   Topic   Date   Topic
Jan 13 Hydrogen Spectroscopy   Mar 9 Spring Break
  15 and Error Analysis     11 Spring Break
             
  20 Measuring Absolute Zero     16 Talks/Theory Section due
  22 and Linear Fitting     18 Talks
             
  27 Nuclear Decay and     23 Talks/Project Begin
  29 Mathematical Models     25 Talks
             
Feb 3 Round Robin Labs     30 Talks
  5 Start (see Course Outline)   Apr 1 Talks
             
  10 Weekly Student     6 Talks/Symposium drafts due
  12 Talks Begin     8 Talks
             
  17 Talks/Topics due     13 Talks
  19 Talks     15 Talks
          16 Student Symposium
  24 Talks/Abstracts due     20 Contingency Time
  26 Talks     22 Contingency Time
Mar 1 Symposium Applications due     23 Notebooks due
  2 Talks        
  4 Talks/Introductions due      

Possible Poster Topics

The charge of the electron (NPN transistor).

Rotary motion and the onset of chaos.
The photoelectric effect and Planck's constant.

The speed of light.
Interferometry of light.

X-ray scattering.
Physical optics and the limits of sight.

Large oscillation pendulum.
The coupled pendulum and the onset of chaos.

Air friction and terminal velocity.
Optical spectrum of helium.

Optical spectrum of mercury.
Brownian motion and the discovery of atoms.

The mechanical equivalent of heat.
Absorption spectrum of beer

Craters, collisions, and dinosaurs.
Thermal radiation

Microwave transmission and detection
Mechanical waves