Spring Term 2016

Instructor:    Galen C. Duree Jr., PhD

Office:    Room CL105                       Phone:    872-6025                                 Box:    182

E-Mail:   duree@rose-hulman.edu

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

The final lab experiments, entitled "Interference of Light (New Version)", a description of which begins on page 164 in the lab manual, will be conducted in CL117 on Friday, May 13, 2016, starting at 8:05 AM.

The lab reports are due in the green bin outside the PHOE department office by 5:30 PM on Friday, May 20, 2016.

For this lab, you have two tasks.  (1) Determine the slit spacing between two different pairs of slits.  (2) Determine the slit width for a single slit arrangement.  In order to do this, you will be using Logger Pro to record intensity vs. position.  Make sure that you perform at least two different trials (so you will have two separate files containing your data from Logger Pro) for each slit pair.  Measure the spacing between adjacent bright fringes using the "Analyze" and "Evaluate" functions in Logger Pro.  For each spacing measurement, determine the d value (part 1) or the a value (part 2).  Then average all of the d values or a values for a given slit arrangement together and calculate the standard deviation.  These will be the values that you will report to fulfill the task requirements.  Do NOT calculate the average fringe spacing unless you want to propagate the uncertainty to get the d or a values.  You will get a low report grade if the uncertainties are not calculated correctly and, unfortunately, there will be no time for you to redo the calculations!

Include at least one graph from each of the experiments (one sample for the two slit sets and one for the single slit arrangement), so there should be a minimum of 2 graphs included in your lab report.  However, it may be just as easy to include all of your graphs so that you have a record of all of the bright or dark fringe locations when you do the analysis.

From the previous lab:

For this lab, follow the procedure listed in the manual.  There are essentially two tasks that you need to do: (1) determine the focal length of lenses A, B, and C; (2) Evaluate the theoretical expressions for the magnification of a lens and a simple telescope.  You may estimate the uncertainty on the distances by changing the positions until you can definitely tell that the image quality has changed.  For each lens, get at least 3 different sets of image/object distances.  Find the focal length for each set and then compute the average and standard deviation for the focal length.  For your magnification calculations, make sure that you include the uncertainty.  If you are not sure about how to do this, please ask!  Do not forget to do steps 6 and 7 - two different types of telescopes.

Download a copy of the Error Analysis Worksheet

After the interference lab, you are done for the year!

A complete lab report must have the following sections:

Make sure that you address the specific tasks that I give you!  If you perform great analysis and have insightful conclusions, but do not address the tasks that I give you, do NOT expect a very good grade on your report - no matter how much effort you put into it!

Do not forget to update your Table of Contents and to number the pages in your lab notebook!

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!).

*Abstract - a BRIEF description of what you were investigating, how you conducted the experiment and your conclusions based on your experience.  Try to write the abstract with 150 words or less, but still communicate important information.  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 should include a discussion about the model or the method selected for performing the tests.  If you use models (equations) in your analysis, list the models in this section and describe what each of the variables represent.  Do NOT include formulas for calculating averages and standard deviations.

*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.  If the data is taken by computer, you must specify the path and filename where the data is stored.   This information must be listed in this section right after the description of how the data was taken.  Do not simply list all of the files generated at the end of the section.

*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 particular attention to when grading.

Modified May 05, 2016 by Galen C. Duree Jr.