Spring, 2017. Section 1
Physics 457W
Spring, 2017. Section 1
Mon. and Wed., 2:30 - 5:30 pm, 309 and 310 Osmond
Instructor Ying Liu
152F Davey Lab
863-0090.
Office hours: By appointment
Teaching assistantBrian Zakrzewski
Room 3 Osmond
863-0098
Office hours: By appointment
Important Notice
Because radioactive substance is present in 310 Osmond, University regulations do NOT allow food or drinks in this room. A failure of observing this rule will automatically result in an “F” grade for this course.
• Textbook
No textbook is assigned for this course. However, a short introduction to each experiment, along with documentation of the instrument to be used, can be found at
http://sites.psu.edu/physics457/
Students are encouraged to also use resources available in the library.
• Purpose of the course
This course is to provide an introduction to experimental techniques used in modern physics research labs and learn how to conduct physics research. It is designed to train students to work independently and creatively, and learn how to write scientific papers. The students should try to work on their own as much as possible. However, the instructor and the teaching assistant will be available to help when needed. Only two lectures will be given in this class for the entire semester.
• Organization
Two students will do experiments in a team. You will perform 3 short experiments and 1 long experiment.
For short experiments, each team is required to choose one experiment from each of the three categories (see below).
• Lab reports
The lab report is a very important part of this course for both physics and fulfilling your writing requirement. You need to set significant amount of time aside for writing reports.
While the two students in a team will share the data, each student will write his/her own lab report. For format and writing style, please see instruction below.
To fulfill the writing requirement for Physics 457W, your lab reports for short experiments will be read by the instructor and returned to you with suggestions for revision. You will make changes and turn the report in again, usually a week after you get it back. Sometimes the report will be returned to you one more time for additional revisions. You will again turn the revised report a week after you get it back.
For the long experiment, there will be no revisions. However, you’re expected to turn in a preliminary lab report on the date as indicated below. The preliminary lab report should include the introduction and the theory sections, and the results you will have at the time (you should get most of the data already by then). I will make my regular comments and suggestions. The purpose of this exercise is give the instructor a chance to see if everything is on track and the students to get feedback.
All lab reports except your last lab report should be in the form of hard copies when you turn them in. Please print it single-sided.
For the report of the long experiment, you should send it to me in electronic form (in pdf) by email (as an attachment).
• Lab notebook
It is very important for you to keep good record on your research work. How much notes are needed is judged by a simple criterion: One of your classmates needs to be able to repeat what you have done SOLELY based on your notes.
You need to purchase a good notebook – those with permanent binding and pages numbered. You should be able to purchase one in the University Bookstore. You’re not supposed to tear off any pages. If you make a mistake, or simply don’t like what you’ve written, just cross it out and start over again - Every page of the logbook stays in the book.
More specifically, you need to enter the following information: a) Title of the project, the starting date, your name and your partner’s name (and your partner’s contact information); b) List of goals; c) List of daily tasks; and d) Other useful information.
Your notebook will be graded by your TA, usually after you finish the first version of your lab report for each experiment.
• Oral exam:
There will be a session for oral examination towards the end of the semester. The oral exam will cover one short experiment as well as the long experiment. Each student will have a 10-min. session with the instructor to assess your understanding of the course material. This is designed mainly to supplement the evaluation on your work in the course that is done mostly with your lab partner.
• Grading:
25% for notebook (5% each short experiment, 10% for the long experiment), 50% reports (10% for each short experiment and 20% for the long experiment), 15% for the oral exam/personal meeting, and 10% for overall performance.
Points will be taken off for late lab reports/notebook.
• Factors taken into considerations for grading the experiment and the report parts:
Experiment:1) Motivation and persistence.
2) Completeness of the measurements.
3) Correctness of the results.
4) Understanding of the physics including the possible sources of error.
Report:1) Correctness in physical concept.
2) Compliance to the format of the report as described below.
3) Clarity and style.
4) Completeness, including error analysis.
Overall performance will be evaluated based on your quality of work, initiatives, and participation.
There will be no written exams for this class.
• Error analysis
The experimental error is the deviation of your measurement from the true value of the quantity, a number that can be estimated in a scientific way. It is NOT the same as the difference between your measurement and the accepted value of what you are trying to measure (which, unfortunately, is commonly assumed), even though the accepted value is presumably close to the true value. For the purpose of this course, this distinction means that we usually do NOT obtain the experimental error by simply comparing the result of our measurements with the accepted value.
More detailed discussion on error analysis is posted on the course website.
The error analysis is very important for scientific research as it helps us understand nature of the measurement, and ultimately, how much you can trust your results. To track down all sources of error and come up ways to eliminate them when possible is an intellectually challenging task.
Your final result for quantity X should be written as (X ± X) followed by the unit of the quantity, where X is the estimated error of X.
Instruction for writing lab report (Very Important!)
1. The lab report should include the following sections:
• Title page. Include the title of the experiment, your name and your lab partner’s name, and the date on which the report is turned in, and for 457W students, which version (first or second) of the report it is.
• Abstract. Summarize the purpose, method, and the main results of the experiment.
• Introduction. What? Why? How? A short discussion on the history of the experiment is fine. But it should NOT be the main part of the introduction.
• Theoretical and other background information.
• Experimental method(s). A schematic of experimental setup is required.
• Experimental results. Include raw data in an appropriate form, analysis of the data.
• Evaluation of experimental uncertainties.
• Discussion and conclusion. Indicate the main implications of the experimental results.
• References. Cite the most relevant ones. Elementary things from common textbooks are not necessary to reference. Follow American Physical Society (APS) style when citing a reference.
2. The lab report should be around 6-7 pages for short experiments and around 10-15 pages for the long one, excluding illustrating figures and plots of experimental results.
3. Use 12-point fonts and 1.5-line spacing for your reports.
4. Each figure should include a figure caption, placed below the figure. If you use tables, each table should have a table caption, placed above the table.
5. Writing styles should follow American Physical Society (APS) style handbook, available online at
6. The ultimate goal of this exercise is to gain the ability to write research papers of publishable quality.
7. Turn in all lab reports in the form of single-column, single–sided hard copy.
Class Calendar
WeekDatesActivities
11/10Distribute syllabus, form groups, and pick 1st experiment
1/12 1st short experiment
21/17 1st short experiment
1/191st short experiment
A lecture on “Error analysis”
31/24 1st experiment
A lecture on “Writing lab report”
Pick the 2nd experiment
1/261st short experiment
41/31Start 2nd short experiment
Lab report for the 1st experiment due on 1/31
2/22nd short experiment
52/7 & 2/92nd short experiment
Pick the 3rd experiment on 2/7
62/14Start 3rd short experiment
Lab report for the 2nd experiment due on 2/14
2/163rd short experiment
72/213rd short experiment
Pick the long experiment on 2/21
Discussion of required safety training for some labs
2/233rd short experiment
82/28Start the long experiment (Week 1)
Lab report for the 3rd experiment due on 2/28
3/2Long experiment
93/6 – 3/10Spring break week
No classes
103/13 & 3/15APS March meeting.
Classes will not meet
Finish lab reports of all short experiments
All lab reports including revisions due Tuesday, 3/21
113/21 & 3/23Long experiment (Week 2)
123/28 & 3/30Long experiment (Week 3)
134/4 & 4/6Long experiment (Week 4)
144/11 Long experiment (Final week)
4/13 Long experiment
Preliminary lab report due on Thursday, 4/13
154/18Oral exams
Preliminary lab reports due back to students
4/20 Work on the lab report for the long experiment
Class will not meet
164/25 & 4/27Final report for the long exp. due by midnight on 4/28!
It should be sent to Prof. Liu by email as an attachment.
NO hard copy will be accepted.
Classes will not meet.
175/1 – 5/3Finals week. Class will not meet – Have a good summer!
List of experiments
Short experiments (in three categories)
I. Fundamental constants
1. Speed of light
2. Cavendish experiment
3. Current balance (both versions)
4. Oil droplets (charge quantization)
II. Resonance and interference
5. Chaos
6. Driven harmonic oscillators
7. Electron spin resonance (ESR) short experiment
8. Microwaves interference
III. Others
9. X-ray diffraction short experiment
10. Franck-Hertz experiment on resonant scattering of electrons by Hg atom
11. High Tc superconductors (sample resistance as a function of temperature and magnetic field)
12. Brownian motion
Long experiments
1. Compton scattering and gamma ray absorption (scattering of photons by free electrons in metal)
2. Mossbauer effect, measure changes in the nuclear spectrum of 57Fe to determine its local environment.
3. Laser spectroscopy
4. Optical experiments
5. Long ESR experiment (electron spin resonance spectroscopy).
6. Hall effect, determine the properties of the charge carriers and the band gap in semiconductors.
7. Muon decay, determine the life time and the speed of muons in the cosmic rays.
8. NMR experiment
9. Raman spectroscopy
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