Content of the Course

This laboratory course will cover topics pertaining to elementary mechanics. Goal: to witness some of the laws and equations of physics "in action." In this course, we will not be "verifying" these laws; they've been tested for hundreds of years and seem pretty sound. Instead, we will concentrate on making connections between what you observe in the lab and the theoretical concepts and equations discussed in lecture and in the textbook.

This separately graded course will, in some ways, parallel the material covered in lecture, but the 2 courses are not closely tied together. Sometimes you will encounter concepts in the laboratory course first, and other times, it will be the other way around. Occasionally, you may even perform an experiment related to material that is not covered in the lecture class.

Instructors:

Lab Reports and Evaluation

• Each student must keep a bound lab notebook, preferably one with at least some gridded pages. A suitable notebook is available in the Bookstore.
  
  
• Each lab report is to be written in pen in the lab notebook and should contain a brief summary of the purpose of the lab, as well as clearly marked tables, calculations and sketches that summarize the data, conclusions and configuration of the experiment. If data sheets are included with the laboratory instructions, they should be completed and attached to the lab notebook. Your notebook should be complete enough that a knowledgeable reader would be able to replicate your experiment based upon the written account you provide in your notebook.
  
  
• Two quizzes will be given during the semester on the dates shown in the Schedule of Laboratory Topics. Note that you may NOT use the department-issued laboratory manual during these quizzes, though you will be permitted to refer to your lab notebook. Therefore, it's especially important that your reports be clear enough for you to extract information from them during the quizzes.
  
  
• Your weekly lab exercise will be successfully completed when your lab report meets the approval of your lab instructor. If so, your lab instructor will record your lab as having been completed, and you then are free to leave the lab. If your instructor does not give his/her approval of your report, you must continue working on the lab until it meets your instructor's approval. A STUDENT WHO LEAVES THE LAB WITHOUT OBTAINING THE INSTRUCTOR'S APPROVAL OF HIS/HER LAB REPORT WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT FOR THE LAB.
  
  
• A student who successfully completes all the labs will be assured of at least a "C" grade for the course. A STUDENT WITH ONE OR MORE INCOMPLETE LABS WILL RECEIVE A LOWER GRADE IN A MANNER TO BE DETERMINED BY THE INSTRUCTOR. Performance on the laboratory quizzes will provide the primary basis for assignment of grades higher than C. However, at the discretion of the instructor, you may be asked to turn in your lab notebook at the end of the semester. The quality of the notebook may be used as a grade bump in borderline cases.
  
  
• A student may not attend another lab section without the approval of the instructor of that section. That instructor must report the student's completion of the lab to the student's regular lab instructor before the student will receive credit for the lab.

Guidelines/hints for your lab notebook

When deciding what you should write in your lab book and how you should write it, the basis for judgment is utility. The first reason to keep a scientific notebook is to keep track of what you've done, so you don't have to waste time repeating yourself. Your record should be complete enough so that you can still understand what you've done if you were to look at your work six months later - or six weeks later, during your lab quiz.

• Don't cram everything into a small area on the page. Spread your writing and drawing out a little.
• Be complete, but not verbose. Complete sentences not necessary. Well-labeled drawings and sketches are often effective.
• Label everything adequately. This includes titling the lab, as well as calculations, tables of data, drawings, graphs, analyses, etc.

In the professional world, your work will probably be challenged; you will be asked to justify your conclusions or interpretations. Your lab notebook (or equivalent) will be your best instrument for defense. Therefore, it should contain enough information to respond to the skeptic (e.g., your thesis supervisor or your project manager) who asks:

• What apparatus did you use?
• What data did you take and how did you take it?
• How good/reliable are your data? What is your experimental precision, and how did you estimate or measure it?
• Why did you take that data? How do (or did) you plan to transform that data in order to get your final result?

In addition to these topics, lab books often contain the first preparatory steps toward the interpretation and publication of the results. Your lab book will also serve as a lab report, so it should also contain a brief presentation of your results, the analysis necessary to extract the results from the data, and the conclusions that you can draw from the experiment. The report will usually include all or most of the following items:

• Completely labeled graphs and tables of raw and derived data values.
• A record of how the raw data were used in calculations of other numbers.
• A record of how the uncertainties in the various results were determined.
• Reasons why you should have confidence in the results. These reasons usually are in the form of cross-checks: either with previous experimental results, from independent sources, or theoretical calculations.