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Can’t Visualize the Experiments!
While you’re reading the lab manual (a few days before lab
actually meets), you might want to examine some pictures of the experiment
on-line, to help you get a feel for how big stuff is, etc. You can use the
links above to go to a different web page for most of the labs that
we’ll do this semester.
Grading
Policy:
Throughout the semester you will complete eight experiments; some
will take more than one week to complete. You will be expected to write-up
some form of analysis of your data for every
experiment you do. Although experiments are performed as teams, each
student is required to submit his or her own unique report. The
requirements for the report will vary from week to week, but will often be
in the form of an abstract (see your lab manual and the bottom of this syllabus
for more information). You may also be required to generate and submit
plots for some of your experiments. Each report will be due at the beginning
of lab the following week. Late work will be penalized 20% per day.
For any of you who will become professional scientists (whether in
physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, etc.), you will learn that your
professional recognition (and salary) are based to a large degree on how
well you can communicate the work you do. As a result, the grade for each
abstract will be based on your decisions about what to include and
exclude, clarity and brevity, and your grammar and spelling. Writing a good abstract is
extremely difficult, and will require a significant investment of time
each week. Good abstracts require revision over time, and cannot be
written in a single session.
When
abstracts are required, you will be required to submit a first draft
of your abstract within two days of doing the lab (Thursday at 5:00pm).
The purpose of the draft is to force you to write in multiple sessions.
You will not be given feedback on it. This draft may contain
spelling errors, and will probably be significantly longer than your
final version. Your final version will be graded on your effort more
than your numerical results.
Every week, you will be
given a quiz at the beginning of the lab period. A quiz will generally be
designed to make sure that you have read and understood the
appropriate section of the lab manual before coming to lab. Quizzes
will usually require you to recall and apply the necessary equations to
solve problems similar to those that will confront you in the lab.
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Few Tips on Writing Abstracts
An abstract is a short summary
of the things that you did during the experiment.
- As far as the abstract is concerned, the lab manual doesn’t exist. You
may not implicitly or
explicitly
refer to the lab manual. Pretend that you are writing for someone who has
never done or even heard about the experiment.
- Shorter is better. Read
your abstract a day after it has been written. If the abstract is just
as clear without any particular word or sentence, remove it. The presence
of useless text is the greatest problem in most abstracts. In general, as
an abstract gets longer, the grade will get lower.
- Use the past tense.
- Avoid superfluous phrases
such as “To do this…,” or “In this lab…,” or “To get started…,” etc.
- = A
statement of purpose.
Approach the labs as though they have never been done before, by anyone.
In an abstract, your purpose is never
“so we could learn about…”. Instead,
your purpose is usually to measure a certain quantity, or perhaps to
verify a theory.
- = A
brief description of the experimental technique, equipment, and procedure used. Writing this so that it is both correct
and brief is extremely difficult.
- = A
discussion of the analysis you performed,
especially the methods used.
- = A
summary of the important results, including numerical values for your
uncertainty.
- = Conclusions.
Was the
statement of purpose (see above) fulfilled? You may not use any
sentence similar to: “This lab was successful”. You should identify the
largest source of uncertainty. The ever-present “human error” is never
acceptable; if you make a blatant error in measurement, you are required
to repeat the measurement.
Abstracts never include equations, plots, or other figures.
Making Plots
Often,
you’ll be required to submit a printout of a plot of your data. All plots should be professional in appearance, and
include:
- = A
name.
- = Clearly labeled axes. The labels should include the appropriate units.
- = If you print your plot, it should have a white background (not the
default gray background created by Excel).
- = A legend, if there is more
than one set of data shown. Legends are not desired if there is only one
set of data. In any case, “series 1” is never
an acceptable legend.
- = Any symbols used should be the correct ones. Note that in some
circumstances, Excel will automatically label things
for you, incorrectly (e.g., the horizontal axis is not
always “x”).
Answering Questions
Sometimes, your weekly report will be in the form of answers to questions,
as opposed to an abstract. Questions must be answered using complete
sentences, and your “answer” must make it clear to the reader (me)
what the question is. For example, suppose you are asked:
When measuring the location of each dot in a series
printed on a paper tape, is it better to record the positions of the
dots relative to some fixed origin on the tape, or the distance between
neighboring points?
When measuring the location of each dot in a series
printed on a paper tape, it is preferable to measure the position of
each dot relative to a fixed origin on the tape, as opposed to measuring
the distance between neighboring points. This prevents any errors made
while measuring the positions of the earlier dots from affecting the
results of the later measurements.
- Besides one word
answers, errors in answering questions frequently arise from answering
a different question than has been asked.
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