Syllabus
PHY 2048C General Physics Lab I
CRN 11214
Instructor: Ken Watanabe, Ph.D.
Office: WH #261Phone #:590-7565email:
Office Hours: Mondays: 9:00am - 11:00am
Tuesdays: 12:45pm - 1:15pm
Wednesdays: 9:00am - 11:00am
Thursdays: 12:45pm - 1:15pm
Laboratory Session: F 1:00pm-2:50pm in BHG 267
the web site you will turn in your Lab reports.
Class Name: GenPhysicsI_Spring2010-1
Class ID number: 3057330
ClassEnrollmentPassword:GenPhysicsI
Start Guide
The laboratory is an integral part of this class. Failure to complete and hand in all laboratory assignments will result in an automatic F for the course. The laboratory will contribute 17% to your final grade, and you must pass the laboratory to pass the class! Do not be late for the lab sessions. If you are late, your lab report grade will be reduced by 10 points. You are not allowed to submit your lab report if you are late more than 30 minutes. Word- processed Laboratory Reports have to be submitted to Turnitin.com (an electronic file) and to me (a hard copy) at the time specified in the syllabus. You must hand in the both copies on time. They must be the same one. If you submit one version to Turnitin.com and give us a different version, you receive zero point. Hand-written Lab Reports will not be accepted (except for equations)! If you hand in your Lab Report late, there will be an automatic deduction of 15 points (out of a maximum of 100 points) for every day (including weekends). Do not miss any lab sessions. We could make up only one lab later on. You will receive an F grade if you missed any two lab sessions.
Academic Behavior Standards and Academic Dishonesty
All students are expected to demonstrate honesty in their academic pursuits. The university policies regarding issues of honesty can be found under the "Student Code of Conduct" on page 11, and under "Policies and Procedures" on pages 18 - 24. of the Student Guidebook . All students are expected to study this document which outlines their responsibilities and consequences for violations of the policy. The FGCU Student Guidebook is available online at
Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com site. Any misbehaviors and or misconducts will be promptly reported to the Dean of Students.
Disability Accommodations Services
Florida Gulf Coast University, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and the university’s guiding principles, will provide classroom and academic accommodations to students with documented disabilities. If you need to request an accommodation in this class due to a disability, or you suspect that your academic performance is affected by a disability, please see me or contact the Office of Adaptive Services. The Office of Adaptive Services is located in Howard Hall 137. The phone number is 590-7956 or TTY 590-7930
Student Observance of Religious Holidays
All students at Florida Gulf Coast University have a right to expect that the University will reasonably accommodate their religious observances, practices, and beliefs. Students, upon prior notification to their instructors, shall be excused from class or other scheduled academic activity to observe a religious holy day of their faith. Students shall be permitted a reasonable amount of time to make up the material or activities covered in their absence. Students shall not be penalized due to absence from class or other scheduled academic activity because of religious observances. Where practicable, major examinations, major assignments, and University ceremonies will not be scheduled on a major religious holy day. A student who is to be excused from class for a religious observance is not required to provide a second party certification of the reason for the absence.
The following is a very tentative schedule! We reserve the right to change or add requirements at anytime. These changes will be announced/discussed in class.
Date / Reading / DueJanuary F 15 / Lab 1 "Experimental Uncertainty (Error of Measurement) and Data Analysis"
F 22 / Lab 2 Motion in One Dimension (Motion Sensor) / Lab 1
F 29 / Lab 3 Free Fall / Lab 2
February F 5 / Lab 4 Projectile Motion / Lab 3
F12 / Lab 5 Motion with Constant Acceleration / Lab 4
F 19 / Lab 6 Forces in Equilibrium / Lab 5
F 26 / Lab 7 Conservation of Energy and Momentum / Lab 6
March F 12 / Problem Solving / Lab 7
F 19 / Lab 8 Oscillations
F 26 / Lab 9 Buoyant Force / Lab 8
April F 2 / Lab 10 Heat of Fusion / Lab 9
F 9 / Problem Solving / Lab 10
F 16 / Makeup Lab
Procedure for Writing a Physics Lab Report
The standard everyday lab report consists of the following sections. Note that all lab reports may not have every section, but it is a good idea to include all of these sections (even if you write no such-and-such required). Note also that certain things change from time to time.
Lab Report
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1.Title of Lab Activity
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1.Purpose
2.Materials and Apparatus
3.Procedure
4.Data and Observations
5.Analysis
6.Graphs
7.Sample Calculations
8.Conclusion
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9.Post-Lab questions if required
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Title:
The title should contain the name of the experiment performed, the date the experiment was performed, the names of all of the people who contributed to the lab report, and the name of the instructor of the lab. It is important that the names of all the people who contributed to the lab report be listed. Conversely, if a student did not contribute to the writing or analysis of the lab their name should not appear on the title page or in the title section.
Purpose:
The purpose is a short one or two sentence statement indicating why you are in the lab. State your goal in performing the lab and what you expect to learn from the lab.
Materials and Apparatus:
This is a list of all of the materials that are required to perform the lab. This is both a list for yourself and for the reader of the lab report. This should provide enough information that the lab instructor can pull the materials from the shelf to set up the lab and provide you with the materials necessary.
Procedure:
The procedure is one of the top three important sections in the lab report. The procedure may include diagrams or other helpful information that will make the lab easier to perform. The procedure should be complete enough that an arbitrary person could read your procedure and could perform the lab as you did. DO NOT copy the procedure from the book or lab manual. Write the procedure in your own words and add notes and diagrams as necessary.
Data and Observations:
Typically, before the lab, you draw up the data table in which you will record your data. The lab report should contain a neater version of your actual data table but should reference the actual data table as an appendix.
Observations, on the other hand, are not usually as well preconceived. As you go through a lab make notes and observations that might prove to be important later when the report is being generated. If changes are made in the lab record them, if certain elements of the lab are not performed record the differences, or if you use a particular piece of equipment that is unique, make note of it. Observations are not required to be present in the final lab report, but they make the process of writing the lab much easier.
Analysis:
This is the most important section. The analysis is everything that you do between data collection and the writing of the conclusion. The analysis is the thought process that takes you from observation to brilliant insight. Most of the time the analysis is a lot of little steps that you go through mentally. It is important that you write these steps down. The analysis is not a list of numbers and calculations. The analysis is the explanation of what you did, what you observed, possible sources of error (not just human-error), explanation of meaningful statistics (don't include numbers if they don't mean anything). You can list final results in an analysis and include a description of what those numbers mean (you still have to report your findings and results in the Conclusion). Analysis of graphs belongs in this section, such as which graphs yielded straight line correlations and what the slope of such a line might have been, and what that slope (if it exists) might mean. Remember this is the meat of your report. You should spend 80% of your time on this section of your report.
Graphs:
Analysis and graphs are listed as two separate sections when in fact they are part of a larger whole, but many students loose sight of the fact that there are in fact two distinct steps. Graphs are not an analysis. Graphs are a tool, much as a calculator. They allow you represent a lot of data in a very short space. Graphs allow you to analyze data in interesting ways, but graphs do not an analysis make.
Sample Calculations:
This is a short section that shows a sample of every calculation that you carried out by hand. In essence this is a list of equations, but it goes one step further as it shows one example of every equation being used. Remember just one example of every equation used is to be shown.
Conclusion:
This is the second most important part of the lab. This is where you sum it all up. The conclusion will include your results, any relationships (or equations) that you have discovered. Indicate how accurate your results are and explain any discrepancies. Make the lab instructor believe that you understand.
Post-Lab questions:
Most of lab manuals have questions you have to answer. Always copy the original question, and write your answer. Answering these questions is also an important part in grading.
is also an important part in grading.