COURSE SYLLABUS FORM

American University of Beirut

Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Department of Physics

Course Number and Title: Physics 211L Electricity and Magnetism Laboratory
Semester: Summer 2023

1. Course Description and Learning Outcomes

Physics 211L is a one-credit 5 hour/week laboratory course designed primarily for

mechanical, electrical, computer, and communication engineering students. It has PHYS
211 (Electricity and magnetism) as a pre- or co-requisite. This course is also among the
pre-medical course requirements for chemistry students. Some of the laboratory skills
that students will acquire during this course are collection and analysis of experimental
data, error analysis, graphical representation, and computer-assisted data acquisition and
analysis.

2. Resources Available to Students

Laboratory manual and reports:

The PHYS 211L laboratory manuals as well as the lab reports should be
downloaded every week from MOODLE.

Textbook (Physics 211):

Principles of Physics, By Halliday and Resnick, (11th Ed.), Wiley 2007

3. Grading Criteria

The final grade is computed with the following percentages:

 Laboratory reports 35%
 Instructor evaluation 5%
 Popup quizzes 10%
 Final exam 50%.
.

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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
 4. Schedule

Experiment
1 week: June 15
st
Introduction and Analysis of Experimental Results
(Room 211)
2nd week: June 20 The Digital Oscilloscope and the Function Generator
(Room 211)
June 22
Ohm’s Law (Room 202)

3rd week: June 27 Capacitance and dielectrics (Room 211)

June 29 Off

4th week: July 4 RL and RC series circuits (Room 202)

Measurement of magnetic fields (Room 211)
July 6

5th week: July 11 Measurement of the e/m Ratio of electrons (Room 211)

July 13 Measurement of the force between two parallel current-

carrying conductors (Room 211)
6th week: July 18 Transformers (Room 202)

July 20 Off

7th week: July 25 RLC series circuit (Room 211)

July 27 Review Session

Wednesday August Written Exam

2, 3:30 p.m. physics
room

5. Course Procedure and Policies

Attendance: Attending all lab sessions is mandatory. You perform nine experiments
during the semester. The final lab report grade is computed as the average of the nine
report grades. If you miss a lab session without a reasonable excuse you get a grade of
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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
zero. Make-up classes for missed lab sessions will be addressed as appropriate to the
circumstances. If you miss more than two lab sessions without a reasonable excuse,
you should drop the course; otherwise, you receive a failing grade. It is your
responsibility to drop the course.

Lab sessions: The lab sessions start at 12:30 and 2:30 P.M. You should be in the lab on
time. Being unpunctual will have consequences on your grade, you will lose 10% of the
corresponding report’s grade. If you are late twice, you won’t be allowed to join the lab
session, and you will be considered absent.
 What should you do prior to coming to lab?
On Moodle, you will find a lab manual and a fillable report form for each experiment.
Read through the experiment before going to the lab. Make sure you understand the steps
of the experiment. On Moodle, you will also find videos for each experiment. You can
watch these videos as you prepare for a lab session.
 How does a lab session run?
The lab instructor starts the session by taking attendance and distributing students into
groups of two. You will be assigned different group partner every session. Next, the
instructor gives a brief explanation of the experiment during which he/she includes

instruction at key points in the laboratory. Next, you will start performing the experiment.
The full duration of a lab session is 2.5 hours, during which you will perform the
experiment, collect data, and analyze these data by completing the lab report fillable
form.

Handling of equipment: Extreme care should be taken when handling laboratory

equipment to avoid breakdown. Most equipment is very expensive. Willful damage,
destruction, and/or theft of physics lab property is prohibited and will be subject to
appropriate punishment. Any equipment failure should be immediately reported to the lab
instructor, who will contact the lab technicians for equipment inspection and repair. If the

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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
technicians are unable to solve the problem promptly, they will ask the instructor to move
you to the “extra” set-up that has been installed for emergencies.

At the end of your lab session: The last step in each lab session is to restore all
equipment to the state in which you found it by doing the following:
 Close all programs without saving your data.
 Turn off electrical equipment.
 Unplug banana and BNC wires and other connectors.
 Re-pack mass sets, remove strings from equipment, and replace used scissors.

Laboratory discipline:
Do not eat, drink, vape, smoke, or chew gum, during a lab session. Keep instruments and
materials away from your face and mouth. The use of cell phones and/or similar
communication devices is prohibited during the lab session. Turn off your cell phone
and place it at the instructor’s desk at the beginning of a lab session.
Your lab instructor reserves the right to dismiss from class, any student acting in a
manner that is considered disruptive or counterproductive to the teaching/learning
process in the laboratory.

Laboratory reports: you should download the laboratory fillable form from MOODLE,
print out a copy, and bring it with you to the lab session. You will not be allowed to
attend the lab session if you come without a hard copy of the Manual and Report
Form.
Each group must submit ONE lab report at the end of the lab session. You and your lab
partner should report the “raw” data that you have collected during the experiment, the
corresponding data analysis and end results, graphs, and discussion and answers to the
questions in the Report Form. Data and results should be reported according to the
guidelines presented in the introductory session, which is also found in the “Analysis of
Experimental Data” on Moodle. If you believe your lab partner does not do his/her part of

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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
the work and you don’t want to do all the work by yourself and still share with him/her
your grade, it is your right to report this to your lab instructor and/or to the lab manager
and lab coordinator. Your lab instructor will talk to your lab partner and advise him/her to
do his part of the work. Alternatively, you can ask for work to be done individually, so
that you can submit your lab report and your partner can submit a separate lab report.

You will examine the corrected laboratory report during the following laboratory session
or during the office hour of your lab instructor. You may not take back the reports – they
will be stored in the Department.

Missing the Final Exam: A make-up for a missed final exam will be given, only after
the Administrative Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approves the request
for such a make-up. Medical reports will be considered only if they are issued by the
University Health Services of AUB or the AUB Medical Center. Additional information
about make-up examinations can be found in section 8: General University Academic
Information of the University Catalogue 2022-2023.

Cheating: Falsifying data, cheating (which includes copying another student’s work
and/or accepting or providing help to another student without the approval of your lab
instructor) are considered acts of academic dishonesty. You will get a grade of zero if
your lab instructor decides that you are violating academic integrity. Your lab instructor
will report you to the lab manager and lab coordinator who will report your action to the
Student Affairs Committee. If you are found to be cheating during the final exam, you
will be expelled from the exam room and you will get an automatic zero on the exam.
In any of the above cases, the violation will be reported to the Student Affairs Committee
for further disciplinary action, which may include expulsion from the University.

Office Hours: Laboratory instructors will set up regular weekly office hours that will be
announced at the beginning of the semester. You are advised to attend these office hours

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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut
for any questions or comments about the course and the material covered in the various
lab experiments. If you cannot attend any of the stated office hours, email the person you
would like to see.

Nancy Rahbany, Laboratory Coordinator

Physics Department – Room 323
Ext: 4349/4309
[email protected]

Elissar Majdalani, Laboratory Manager

Physics Department -Room 207A.
Ext: 4317
[email protected]

Jimmy Jokhadar, Laboratory Instructor

Physics Department -Room 102
[email protected]

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Physics 211L, Department of Physics
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut