Engineering Physics Lab Policies

Instructor information

Name Dr. John C. James

Phone: (314)-977- 2527
E-mail: [email protected]
Office: Room 119, Shannon Hall
Office Hours: 1:30-2:30PM, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. (call before
arriving to make sure I am not elsewhere at that moment)

General Policies

1) Attendance is mandatory. Missing 2 or more labs, even if excused, results in

failure of the lab. The TA is not required to give make-up labs. Make-up labs are simply
not generally available. On some rare occasion a student may be able to convince the TA
to come in at another time and personally set up another lab for them, but only if the TA
is willing and the original lab was missed due to a proven emergency. THE LOWEST
LAB GRADE WILL NOT BE DROPPED.

2) Labs must not be copied. Each student is required to hand in a unique lab with
only the same data shared with lab partners.

3) Labs must be handed in by the next meeting or ten points will be removed per day
of lateness.

4) The student is expected to read and understand the laboratory material before
coming to lab. The physics lecture material may not be concurrent with the lab but the
student is expected to read the relevant chapters from the textbook before lab.

Grading:

The final grade (without + and – shown) is based on a normal grading scale as
follows

93 - 100% = A
90 – 92.99% = A-
87 - 89.99% = B+
83 – 86.99% = B
80 – 82.99% = B-
77 - 79.99% = C+
73 – 76.99% = C
70 – 72.99% = C-
60 - 69.99 = D
0 - 59 = F
Lab Report Format:

The laboratory work should take the following form when handed in to the instructor:

I. Basic Information
- Title
- Your Name (lab partner’s name)
- Date Experiment Performed

II. Abstract (Written after the rest of the report is written)

A brief paragraph in your own words stating:

- What you did
- Why you did it (relative to objective)
- What your results were
- Conclusions

III. Theory
- Inform the reader about the basic subject area upon which the experiment
is based
- Explain where the origins of major formulas (including explaining
symbols and units involved)
- Pictures and diagrams are sometimes necessary in giving background
about a particular experiment

IV. Objective
- One sentence or two that describe(s) the basic reason for performing the
experiment (relate to introduction)

V. Procedure
- Explain clearly how the experiment was performed
- ***Show any/all diagrams needed for explanation (label them clearly).
Diagrams are the only portions of the lab that can be hand drawn. If they
are hand drawn, use a ruler and make them legible.
- Do not write procedure as if you are telling someone what to do. Write it
in the past tense (what YOU did). Preferably third person, as this is what
you will have to do in the future for other labs or on the job.
VI. Data
- Place all data taken throughout the experiment in this section (including
observations that are found to be relevant to the experiment)
- Place as much data as possible in tabular form
- Watch significant figures and do not forget units. Tables should have
units at the top of the column.
VII. Calculations (must always show units)
- Place only one example of every calculation that is necessary in this
section
- Once again watch all units and significant figures

VIII. Qualitative Error Analysis

- Give at least two or three valid reasons why your data may not have been
completely accurate (examples: power fluctuation, difficulties in taking
measurements, failing equipment, etc.)

IX. Quantitative Error Analysis

- Standard deviation and average
- Scale reading and quantitative error estimation
- Precision and Accuracy, if requested
- Best and worst slopes calculation of error, if requested
- Percent error, if requested

X. Results (must always show units!)

- In tabular form, show all final calculation results for all cases.
- Also show any/all percent differences, percent errors, and standard
deviation.
- This is where you might want to include your graphs.

XI. Conclusion (Must have units!)

- Was the physical law verified? Did the expected result fall in the error
range of the measurements? (must show units on range comparison)
- Any particular findings that should be mentioned about the results
- Base conclusion upon what was found in the results
- Any constructive criticism of the experiment

Helpful hints:

1) Be careful and listen to the instructor’s and the lab TAs’ instructions at all
times.

2) When finished with lab put your laboratory desk back the way that you
found it as much as possible.

3) Most importantly, when writing the lab reports, make them as brief as
possible without leaving out important information. Conciseness is key.
Saint Louis University and its faculty are committed to supporting our students and
seeking an environment that is free of bias, discrimination, and harassment. If you have
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Disability Services
Students with a documented disability who wish to request academic accommodations
must contact Disability Services to discuss accommodation requests and eligibility
requirements. Once successfully registered, the student also must notify the course
instructor that they wish to access accommodations in the course.
Please contact Disability Services, located within the Student Success Center, at
[email protected] or 314.977.3484 to schedule an appointment.
Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries. Once approved, information about the
student’s eligibility for academic accommodations will be shared with course instructors
via email from Disability Services and viewed within Banner via the instructor’s course
roster.
Note: Students who do not have a documented disability but who think they may have
one are encouraged to contact to Disability Services.
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Academic integrity is honest, truthful and responsible conduct in all academic endeavors.
The mission of Saint Louis University is "the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God
and for the service of humanity." Accordingly, all acts of falsehood demean and
compromise the corporate endeavors of teaching, research, health care, and community
service via which SLU embodies its mission. The University strives to prepare students
for lives of personal and professional integrity, and therefore regards all breaches of
academic integrity as matters of serious concern.
The governing University-level Academic Integrity Policy was adopted in Spring 2015,
and can be accessed on the Provost's Office website at:
https://www.slu.edu/provost/policies/academic-and-course/policy_academic-integrity_6-
26-2015.pdf.
Additionally, each SLU College, School, and Center has adopted its own academic
integrity policies, available on their respective websites. All SLU students are expected to
know and abide by these policies, which detail definitions of violations, processes for
reporting violations, sanctions, and appeals. Please direct questions about any facet of
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or the Dean/Director of the College, School or Center in which your program is housed.
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Students are encouraged to take advantage of University Writing Services in the Student
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SLU faculty have begun to request language for a syllabus statement that acknowledges
and points students toward supports for basic needs insecurity for things like food and
shelter. The Dean of Students Office developed the following statement for those who
wish to include this sort of language into their syllabi.
Basic Needs Security
Students in personal or academic distress and/or who may be specifically experiencing
challenges such as securing food or difficulty navigating campus resources, and who
believe this may affect their performance in the course, are encouraged to contact the
Dean of Students Office ([email protected] or 314-977-9378) for support.
Furthermore, please notify the instructor if you are comfortable in doing so, as this will
enable them to assist you with finding the resources you may need.
Error analysis:

Since no measurement can be made that is without error, one might ask the simple
question; how do scientists compare data? How does anyone know if a theory is wrong
or right? The answer is that an error range must be found when measurements are made
so that the data can be compared with that from other experimentalists.
Obviously it is terribly important to use error analysis when your measurements
are going to be questioned or when there is great significance imparted to the outcome of
your measurements. Without error analysis you should feel the inadequacy and lack of
confidence which comes from not doing the work necessary to truly find the answers to
important questions. In fact, defining error ranges is the only way that theories can be
proved wrong. We might all still believe that heavier things always fall faster or that all
motions of the planets are in perfect circles, if the error range of measurements were not
capable of excluding wrong answers.
In the labs you are doing this semester, the laws of physics have been found to be
true, to the accuracy you are measuring, long before now. This tends to make for a
complacency about the avoidance of error analysis. “If the theory is right, why do we
really need to check it?” is the complaint most often heard from the beginning
engineering student. The answer to this question is that all interactions with the real
world are theoretical. Learning a method for you to quantify your own level of
confidence in the answers you give is terribly important for the engineer as well as
researcher in the fundamental questions of nature. This is why you will be required to do
the specified form of the error analysis for each of the labs where it is given.
The way researchers and engineers compare measurements is by the use of
measured error ranges. For example: If you measured the gravitational constant, G,
using a torsion balance method in New Zealand and you wanted to find out if they were
consistent with the measurements made in France, you would check to see if the error
ranges overlapped. That may actually be a good quantitative definition of consistency. If
the error ranges overlap in two measurements then they are said to be consistent with one
another, if they do not overlap and they are separated by more than one standard
deviation for each measurement, then they are inconsistent with one another. If the
measurement is made to verify a theory or question and the expected value from the
theory lies in the error range of the measurements, then the theory is said to be verified by
the measurements. If the separation between the expected and measured values is more
than a very few standard deviations, then the theory is not verified by the measurements.
With these statements in mind it is now clear what must be included in every
conclusion written by you in this lab. In the conclusion you must state whether you
verified the theory or not. The way to do this is to state your error range and
whether the expected theoretical value range was included in, or overlaps with this
error range. For the example given of the G measurements a number line is given in
figure 1 to show the different possibilities for your conclusion. The first possibility
exemplifies consistency and the second, inconsistency.
 GNZ
G
GF

GNZ

G
GF
Figure 1)
The error range around the average values for G from New Zealand and France are compared.
The first diagram shows consistency and the second shows inconsistency.

To compare error ranges you must use the methods of error calculation. These
will be taught in the next lab. Familiarize yourself with the following terms and
calculations from the first lab before coming to lab next week.

Average

Standard Deviation

Precision

Accuracy

Percent error

Scale reading uncertainty

Best and Worst line fits

Propagation of Errors

Also, familiarize yourself with the excel helpsheet and read the datastudio set up
methods.