Advanced Physics Laboratory
Spring 2008
|
Instructor |
Marvin Johnson |
|
Office |
N169 |
|
Phone |
667-3552 |
|
|
marvin@physics.csustan.edu |
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Web Page |
Physics.csustan.edu Click the Advanced Lab link. |
|
Office Hours |
Monday & Wednesday |
This course is designed to introduce you to certain laboratory techniques and practices and to introduce you to some of the experiments covered in a modern physics course. Students are required to take this course twice to satisfy the requirements for a Physics Major. The second time I want students to work on a project. If you have already taken the course once, you must see me to arrange your project.
Those
of you taking the course the first time will do the six experiments listed
below. This means that you have two weeks per experiment. Note that you should
spend about 39 hours in the laboratory for this course. That means that you will need
to spend about three hours in the lab each week.
Get a lab book and keep records of your experiments in the lab book! In some ways this is awkward because you will be working on experiment 6 while doing the others, but you can leave 6-7 pages for this one at the beginning of your lab book. All your notes and data should be put into your lab book. Number the pages as you go along and use the first page as an index! When you turn in your lab write up, you should type them, i.e. on the computer, and turn in both your lab book and the report.
1. Measure g using a simple pendulum. The purpose of this experiment is to introduce you to the problem of making precision measurements and to error analysis.
2. Atomic Spectra Experiment. This will introduce you to diffraction gratings, the monochrometer, and atomic spectra.
3. Michelson Interferometer and Fabry Perot Interferometer. This is about interference.
4. Nuclear Measurements and Gamma-ray Spectroscopy. Here we want you to learn about some techniques for measuring gamma-ray energies and about nuclear decays.
5. Photoelectric Effect. This is a simple looking measurement that is not really so simple. We want you to think about what you are really measuring and about how you interpret your results.
6. Nuclear decay and half-life measurements. This will require that you take data two times a week for the next few weeks. This does not take long, so you can do it while you are working on other experiments.
All of you will do the first experiment at the same time. You will rotate through the others. I want a detailed report on experiments 1, 3, and 6. On the others I want a very brief description of the experiment and a complete presentation of the results and the analysis of the results. I will want to discuss your results with you after you hand them in. You will need to do an experiment, write it up and hand it in before going on to the next experiment.
Each of you must schedule a time when
you will come in and work on your experiments, so that I will be able to work
with you and find you. When you come in
each day, check the Advanced Lab Page on our web server for notices and
discussions of the experiments.
To pass the course you must do a
satisfactory job on all six experiments.
I will grade your labs on a scale of 1-10 with 5 = Unsatisfactory, 7 =
Satisfactory, 8 = Good, 9 = Very Good and 10 = Excellent. If something is unsatisfactory, I will return
it to you and ask you to revise it.
Sometimes people do not quite finish in the term and I will let you run
over into the beginning of the summer.
However, you must finish everything by the end of June
2008. If you do not
you will have to retake the entire course.
The report for the Pendulum Lab is due on Friday, February 29.
Those of you who have taken this course once before must make an appointment and see me by Friday, February 22, to discuss your project.
There are several useful books covering some of these experiments. The classic is Melissinos’ Experiments in Modern Physics. It will be on reserve in the Library. I will refer to other texts in the discussion of each experiment.