PHYS408W : Advanced Physics Laboratory is a series of experimental investigations of physical phenomena with an emphasis on written and oral presentation of experimental results and relevant theoretical background. Topics may include measuring the speed of light, measuring the gravitational constant, the Millikan oil-drop experiment, a cosmic-ray muon measurement, Compton Scattering, gamma-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, microwave scattering, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, and electron spin resonance. Prerequisites are PHYS207 and PHYS212. This is a 4-semester-hour course.

You will work in a small group to complete one experiment every 2-3 weeks. Most of the experimental work you do will be self-directed work done in collaboration with your group. Groups will have access to the laboratory outside of scheduled class meetings. You will be individually responsible for keeping a log book, handing in homework assignments, writing a paper on four experiments, and giving a practice and a final oral presentation on one of your experiments.

http://webpages.ursinus.edu/lriley/courses/p408

John R. Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2e, University Science Books (1997)
ISBN: 093570275X

One of the primary goals of this course is to help you develop your scientific writing skills. Although you will collaborate on experimental work, I expect you to write your own papers.

You will write your papers using L^AT_EX, a typesetting program commonly used by physicists, astronomers, mathematicians, computer scientists.

Before handing in a final version of a paper, you must submit at least one draft. We will do some peer review of drafts in class and enlist the aid of a writing fellow. Due dates for first drafts and final papers for each experiment are posted online on the course schedule. In the interval between the first-draft and final due dates, feel free to hand in further drafts for comment. First drafts must be serious efforts. Otherwise, this system degenerates into a constant game of "catch-up." I reserve the right to put you back on schedule by grading a first draft as a final version if I feel you have not done a reasonable amount of work before the first draft deadline. I will hand back hard copies of drafts with comments. When you hand in a final version of a paper, also hand in the draft versions with my comments.

I only grade final versions of papers. In determining grades, I weigh each of the following four criteria equally.

• Background
  • Did you describe relevant prior experimental work?
  • Did you give an adequate description of the current theoretical understanding of the phenomenon under investigation?
  • Did you refer your reader to primary sources where possible?
• Experimental Work
  • Did you use the available equipment effectively?
  • Did you collect a reasonable amount of data?
  • If things went wrong, did you make a reasonable effort to correct the problems and repeat your measurements?
• Analysis
  • Have you analyzed your data correctly?
  • Is your analysis complete? Could you have extracted more information from your observations?
• Reasoning and Presentation
  • Have you provided enough information that a reader with similar equipment could attempt to reproduce your results?
  • Have you supported your claims with evidence?
  • Have you argued for reasonable conclusions based on your observations and analysis? (Beware of errors of omission as well as commission here.)
  • Have you expressed yourself clearly and concisely?
  • Have you used proper form (proper citation of sources, references to figures and tables in the text, labels on plot axes, proper use of units and significant figures, correct grammar and spelling, e.g.)?

You will be responsible for giving a 10 minute oral presentation on one of your experiments. You will give a practice talk and receive feedback from me and from your peers before giving a final presentation. Your presentations will be scheduled as we go along. You will have plenty of advance notice.

Your intended audience is your peers -- advanced undergraduate physics majors. A good presentation is more than simply a public reading of your paper. Please see the online guidelines for talks for this course.

I strongly recommend that you practice giving your presentation to friends. Rehearsal will help you to ...

• keep your presentation under the 10 minute limit.
• improve the clarity of your presentation.
• feel more comfortable giving a formal presentation.

Keep a log of your laboratory work throughout the semester, preferably in a quad-ruled composition book. Avoid loose-leaf notebooks. Your log book should be a comprehensive record of what you did to get your raw data, your data analysis, and any bibliographic research you did. Dr. Kirby Kemper, who directed the nuclear accelerator laboratory at Florida State University when I was a graduate student there, often yelled "Ink is cheap! Write it down!" He was right!

It is crucial to develop the habit of keeping careful records of your work for several reasons. You are likely to forget most of the details of a measurement within a matter of days if not hours. You may not know which details will turn out to be important. By the time you are writing the paper on your work, the equipment may no longer be set up or even available.

• Label each entry in your log book with the date and time and in the case of lab work, who was there.
• Your log book should stand alone -- it should not be necessary to look at both your log and spreadsheets/diagrams on your laptop in order to piece together what you did. If you enter your data directly into a spreadsheet as you make a measurement, you should still write some notes in your log book about what you did, _and_ tape/glue/staple a printout of the spreadsheet into your log.
• Write notes detailed enough that if you read them 6 months from now, you'll be able to figure out what you did. (Human memory is tragically flawed.)
• Do not remove pages from your log book, and do not erase anything. Cross things out with single lines so that you can recover information as needed.

I will collect your log book periodically for grading. I will be looking for thorough record keeping and evidence that you are making significant contributions to laboratory work. I will not be grading your log book for neatness.

I will assign a homework assignment every 2-3 weeks during the first half of the semester. Assignments are linked to the online course schedule.

Showing up, not only to class but also to meetings with your small group, is essential. Contact me/your group in advance if you need to miss class/a group meeting. If I find that you have a chronic attendance problem, I reserve the right to apply a penalty to your overall grade of as much as 30% (five percent per missed meeting). If you miss six class/group meetings, you will fail the course.

I will calculate final grades using the following grading scheme. (Also see the attendance policy above.)

It is good ethical and professional practice to acknowledge the help you receive from collaborators and others. Handing in someone else's work as your own is plagiarism, while receiving help which you acknowledge is not. Please clear up any questions you have about what constitutes plagiarism right away. If I believe that you have plagiarized or committed any academic honesty violation, I will discuss the incident with you and consult with the Dean of the College regarding the consequences. (See the Student Handbook for a detailed description of College policies related to Academic Honesty.)

Email and the Web

Having a working email account and checking your messages periodically is required for this course. I sometimes use email to convey important course information, and I will assume that you are able to receive it.

Some students have found email dialogs with me to be an efficient way to ask and get answers to questions, since neither of us needs to carve a large block of time out of our schedules. This is not for everyone, but if you think you might like it, give it a try.

If I am unable to hold class due to inclement weather, I will send out an email notification as early as possible. If the Dean declares an "inclement weather day," students off campus may make up all tests and laboratory work missed.