Spring Term 2010

Instructor:    Galen C. Duree Jr., PhD

Office:    Room DL102                       Phone:    872-6025                                 Box:    182

E-Mail:  

Office Hours:       9:00 AM - 10:30 AM   M T F       4:20 PM - 5:15 PM    M T  Th F

The lab reports for the "Diffraction" experiments are due by 5:30 PM in the green bin outside my office, DL102,on Thursday, May 20, 2010.

Please make sure that you perform all of the calculations indicated in the lab manual and be sure to propagate your uncertainties in the calculations.  You are determining the slit widths (with the helium-neon laser) and using that information to determine the wavelength of the diode laser.  All values should reflect appropriate precision and uncertainty!

The final set of experiments, entitled "Diffraction" (a description of which can be found by using this link: Two-slit experiment) will be conducted beginning at 8:30 AM in CL117 on Thursday, May 13, 2010.

A complete lab report must have the following sections:

The first page of your report must have a title, the name of the P.I. (explicitly indicate who was the P.I.), the name of the lab assistant, and the date that the report was turned in (not the date that you performed the experiment).  Remember to update the table of contents (make sure that you have numbered the pages of your lab notebook).

*Abstract - a brief description of what you were investigating, how you conducted the experiment and your conclusions based on your experience.  The abstract should not be a discussion of what you are going to do in the lab.  The abstract cannot be written before you have analyzed your data.  In the lab notebook, skip a page or two so that you can write this in at the beginning of the report after you have analyzed your data.

Introduction - a discussion about any details that you think would help someone perform the experiment.  This may include a discussion about the model or about the method selected for performing the tests.

**Procedure - a detailed description of what you did in the lab.  At the beginning of this section, place the date and the time that you began the experiment.  This section must include a schematic, detailing how things were connected, where appropriate.  The raw data must appear in this section immediately following the description about how the data was taken.   A person must be able to read your procedure section and be able to duplicate your results without having the lab manual present.  Do not do any calculations in this section, just record how you performed the experiments and record the raw data.  This section must be signed by the instructor before you leave the lab.

Analysis - a sample of the calculations made in the lab.  This section should include a sample of the error calculations and propagation of errors used in your analysis.   The final data that you are analyzing to generate conclusions, the values with appropriate uncertainties, must be shown in this section.  The actual calculations for each one does not have to be included, as long as you show an example for one, but you may include them all if you wish.  The calculations may be done by the computer, but include printouts of the worksheet in your lab book.  Any graphs or printouts that are placed in your notebook must occupy one whole page and be trimmed to fit within the page and not hang outside of the notebook.

*Conclusion - this section must have a conclusion that is based on your experiments and analysis.  If your conclusions do not following logically from your analysis, your grade will be deducted significantly.  This section must also contain a brief description of significant factors that you think affected your data, in particular, the uncertainties in your data (factors that contributed to the error in your experiment).  A good thing to keep in mind is to think of this report as a report you are submitting as part of your job responsibilities.   If you do not think your boss would accept what you have to say, it is a safe bet that I will not like it either.

The asterisks indicate the sections that I will pay closest attention to.

Modified June 28, 2010 by Galen C. Duree Jr.