Instructions for Experiments
Instructions for Experiments
Read each experiment thoroughly before coming to lab.
Come prepared to ask questions.
Review the pertinent material in the Physics Lab Help-Ware
software on the Apple computers before lab.
Work in groups of 2 or 3 whenever possible.
Discuss the procedures and analysis carefully with your group.
Think before doing. Consider ways you can reduce errors and
uncertainties. If your percent difference comes out large go back and
re-examine your measurements and calculations.
Take precautions for safety. Also handle equipment carefully
to prevent breakage.
Instructions for Lab Write-ups
Use pencil.
Don't forget to report units with your measurements.
Indicate the quantity and units on each axis of your graphs.
Spread graphs out to cover as much of the page as is reasonable.
Show all calculations, including calculations of slopes of lines
and calculations of percent differences.
Write a conclusion section for each lab summarizing what you
learned. In your conclusions indicate which special steps you took in the
procedure to minimize errors.
Report uncertainties and percent errors honestly and carefully.
Don't report 0% difference. Percent difference is meant to indicate the accuracy
of your measurements
and there is always some error or uncertainty, so don't record 0% as your
difference; instead, if it first seems to be 0%, use some other method to
estimate the error (by, for example, using the number of significant digits
to give an estimate of the error).
Make your drawings and explanations so clear that a layman
could understand them (and so you can still understand them in three
years). Sketches should show the important aspects of the operation of the apparatus.
Please staple multipage write-ups.
Neatness counts. Clarity of communication is very important.
File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.25. On 1 Jan 2003, 14:29.
