Physics 331A

Lab Practices

LABORATORY PRACTICES, SAFETY PRECAUTIONS and WRITING REPORTS

PRECAUTIONS
No food or drink are permitted in the lab. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY INTO ANY LASER BEAM OR ANY SPECULAR REFLECTION OF A LASER BEAM. The lasers in the lab put out 2 mW, more than needed for permanent eye damage. DO NOT touch mirror surfaces, or any optical surface. If a component is dirty, please consult the Lab Manager. In the diraction experiment (Exp. 5) do not focus the unattenuated (i.e., not dimmed with a polarizer) laser light to a point on the linear array. Focus the beam on an index card in place of the array, introduce the diracting aperture, then remove the card and insert the array. Use special care with the spatial lter pinholes (Expts. 4 and 5). The curtains around each lab station can easily be pulled out of their tracks. To avoid this, gather the curtain in small bunches and pull a small portion of the curtain at any one time Avoid leaning on optical tables. Mirrors, lenses should be covered when experiments are nished. When in doubt, ASK FOR INSTRUCTIONS. Sign in and out on sheets provided with each experiment. Indicate any problems with the equipment so that it can be repaired promptly for use by the next group.

LABORATORY WORK
Suggestion While in lab, visit the set-up for your choice of next weeks experiment. That will help you understand the experiment instructions and get started quickly. Data Collection and Presentation Data will be of two basic kinds: (1) sets of a few, 10100, hand-recorded numbers, drawings, brief descriptions of procedures, etc. and (2) computer-generated data recorded on disk. Whether the data are hand-recorded or computer-generated, all the information necessary to arrive at the nal results must be on the data sheets and must be clearly identied. This is as much for your benet as it is for the instructor grading your report. Missing data are a real pain! Hand-recorded data: Data should be written on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets and must include: a) Experiment number, title and date on each page. b) Your name (underlined) on the rst page and the name of your partner or partners (in parentheses).

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Lab Practices

c) Concise statements, labels or drawings that make it clear what the data are and how they were obtained. The object is to generate a data set you could return to several weeks or months later and still understand. It should also be clear to a third party such as your TA or another student in the course what the data mean and how they were obtained. d) Numerical data neatly arranged, tabular if possible, and written in such a way as to indicate the precision of the measurement. For example, a measurement written as 1.00 cm would indicate the measurement was made to a precision of 0.01 to 0.05 cm. In addition to this, an explicit statement as to measurement precision should be included with the data. Units are essential. e) Signature of TA with date and time. Obtain this either when you are nished or when the TA leaves for the day (the laboratory manager can also provide this signature). This permits your data to be checked for completeness before its too late! Computer-generated data: Normally, the raw data need not and should not be printed except in summary form. Instead, a disk should be used to store the data for analysis later. Typical data summaries might be either a graph or a table. Large spreadsheets may be generated in the course of analysis, but should not be printed out in their entirety. Instead, averages, sums, standard deviations, etc. should be computed and printed. At a minimum, a one-page written outline of the data taken must be made for each experiment.

WRITTEN REPORT
Your report must be prepared with word processing software and printed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Graphics are an exception to the rule on printing and can be hand done. An easier alternative is to use the graphics from the experiment instructions that are available as JPEG les on the class website. Students working together are encouraged to discuss their analysis and results with each other (and with other students) but must independently generate their own written reports. The report is graded on a 50 point scale and must include: a) A Title and the number of the experiment, followed by your name (underlined) and the name(s) of your partner or partners (in parentheses). b) [Graded 2/50] An Abstract stating the nature of the experiment and the major results. Abstracts for reports should not exceed about 10 lines. In the example given below, note that both quantitative and qualitative results are included.
A Michelson interferometer has been used to determine the dierence in wavelength of the mercury yellow lines. A value of 2.1 0.1 nm was found for the dierence, in agreement the accepted value. White light fringes were observed.

c) [Graded 4/50] An Introduction. The introduction should contain a brief statement as to what is being investigated. It should describe the apparatus (often a gure is all that is required) and summarize the experimental procedure. In published papers a review of relevant theory or an historical background might be appropriate, but they should not be included in your reports in the interests of brevity. Aim for a short but complete statement. You have written enough when a colleague not in the lab can read your introduction and understand what you had measured and how. Avoid trite phrases, such as, the purpose of this experiment was . . . Take care that your writing is accurate and says what you intend it to say. The commonly encountered phrase the laser went through the rst lens can be interpreted to make sense, but is nonsense as written.

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Lab Practices

d) [Graded: Data 8/50; Analysis (including error) 25/50] A Data and Results section. This section should present your data or data summary and a discussion of your numerical results. The specic measurements to be included are described in the lab instructions. These should be presented in the order they occur in the instructions. Data tables and calculated results should also be in the order they occur in the instructions. Do not put data tables or calculations in appendices. All results must be accompanied by their experimental uncertainties. This does not apply to numbers appearing in intermediate calculations. The uncertainties should contain at most two digits and these digits must correspond to the two least signicant digits in the result. Do not recopy raw data in your report. Instead, construct tables of relevant data or present them graphically. One graph can be worth a thousand data entries! Original data or a photocopy of it must be attached separately. This does not include computer disks. When derived numbers and their uncertainties are presented, it should be clear both what data were used what the uncertainties were in that data. Usually this implies a table of measurements with their uncertainties or possibly the parameters from a computer-generated t of the data with their associated standard errors. Formulas are often appropriate in this section, but derivations should not be given in the report. All relevant formulas can be found in the text or the experiment instructions. Compare your measurements with theory, if appropriate, or with accepted results. For example, if you are observing diraction from a single slit, what is the width of the slit implied by your data? Does this agree with the directly measured width? Is the pattern you observe from scanning the separation of the plates in a Fabry-Perot that which you expect for your measured plate separation? In each instance, you should discuss the sources and magnitudes of possible errors in your data and the limitations, if any, of the theory as it applies to your experiment. If the dierence between your result and accepted values is three standard deviations or more, resolve the dierence (in many cases this will mean recalculating the experimental error with more realistic error estimates for the data). Never force agreement with accepted values or theoretical expectations by altering data or selecting some subset of your data. e) [Graded 5/50] A Conclusion. In this section you should discuss your results in general, but quantitative terms. How close were your results close to those you expected? The statement, Our data agreed with the accepted value is insucient. Instead, a statement such as Our value of the velocity of light, c = 2.996(22) 108 m/s, agrees with the dened value of 299 792 458 m/s within our stated uncertainty not only describes the agreement, but states quantitatively how well it agrees. If your results do not agree with those expected, by how much do they not agree? To what do you attribute the dierence? In particular, if some specic measurement limited the precision of your result, what was that measurement? By how much would you have to improve it to bring about agreement? Writing Quality [Graded 6/50] Clarity and precision are especially important in lab reports. It should be possible for any physics student at the sophomore level or above to read your report and know exactly what you did and how well you did it. In general, it is better to write short, single-subject sentences than long, convoluted sentences with multiple dependent clauses. The result may be a bit choppy and may not win any literary prizes, but it will score points for comprehensibility. Use a spell checker! Seperate, recieve and the like are unforgivable crimes. Know the dierence between principle and principal and when to use each. Some battles have been lost and will not be re-fought in this class. The physicists dangling participle, Using the ne adjustment on the rst mirror, the pattern on the screen was brought into alignment is OK. Data can be used as a singular noun. Split all the innitives you like within reason. Above all, re-read what you have written for sense. If you try you can catch most of your mistakes and greatly reduce the red pencil on your reports. 3

Physics 331A

Lab Practices

Academic Honesty Students working together are encouraged to discuss their analysis and results with each other (and with other students) but must independently generate their own written reports. The way in which you estimate your uncertainties must ALWAYS be clearly shown. If you copy text from the lab instructions, you are wasting space. You are asked to give a brief statement in the introduction; this means in YOUR words. When you quote a result that is not in many optics or physics texts, you need to give a citation, whether you obtain the results from the Internet, a book, or a friend. Best of all is to show how you got the result. For example, the denition of reduced mass needed for experiment 2 is in many texts, but how you use the wavelength splitting you measure to deduce the mass ratio of deuterium to hydrogen is something that needs to be explained. If you copy something from the Internet, give the complete link for the source. If you copy from a book, give the author(s), title, and year published. Plagiarism is an oense punishable by expulsion from the university. If you dont know the meaning of the word plagiarism you might wish to look at http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm or http://www.engr.washington.edu/org/processes/miscpolicy.htm To quote from the second: ALWAYS make very clear reference to the source of the material you use and put the material taken in quotation marks, no matter where you nd it. This is perfectly acceptable and legitimate. DO NOT try to rewrite or change another persons work and pass it o as your ownthis is very dicult to do and is easily detected. You can always use published writings as long as you give a formal reference and acknowledgment of the source. If the information comes from a conversation with a professor or another student, give their name and recognition that it is their thought.