ADVANCED PHYSICS LAB (3): 173.308: Fall 2006
Class Times: Lecture: M 12
Scheduled Lab: M 1-4
Class Location: Bloomberg 478
Course web site:
Basic Goals: The aim is to give students exposure to a number of prominent experiments that set the stage for our understanding of modern physics. And to...
- to acquire a working knowledge of these experiments that defined modern physics
- to provide a feeling for the work and a few of the major techniques of modern experimental physics
- to improve students' skills in data analysis and scientific communication (both written and oral)
- to give exposure to a number of typical data analysis, programming,
and document preparation packages: Igor, Origin, LabView
Importantly, as junior or senior level physics majors (or graduate students) you have passed the point in your scientific studies where you will be "spoon fed" prepared experiments. In this class, you will be given the general topic, a brief description of the major issues and a feeling for what you should be expected to learn and do. A description of the equipment is presented and then you GET TO IT! We will suggest a few basic areas to go, but you will decide what the interesting physics is and what you need to do find that physics. Then having found something interesting, you are expected to be give some commentary on your results. All this, along with background information, goes in your lab reports.
The time to complete various labs varies from just a few hours (for photoelectric effect) to many many hours (Rutherford scattering). Some measurements are relatively quick to setup, but may require long acquisition times (muon lifetime) to acquire sufficient statistical information and therefore may need some amount of periodic babysitting/checking for as long as 72 hours. Information on after hours lab access is given below. Also as is detailed below, there is an emphasis on writing in this class and it will take substantial time to complete analysis and do a good report for each measurement.
Personnel:
Instructor: N. Peter Armitage
Office:
Bloomberg 309
Phone:
(410) 516-0214
Email:
npa@pha.jhu.edu
Office hours: 4:00 - 5:30 Tuesdays in Bloomberg 478 and by appointment
TA: Minho Son
Office hours: 2:00 - 3:00 Wednesdays in Bloomberg 478
Resource Administrator: Steven Wonnell
Computer accounts and keys: You will need a key for after hours access to Bloomberg 478 and a Physics Undergraduate Computer (PUC) Lab account. Information on PUC policies and access can be found here. You will need to contact Brian Schriver in the Physics Dept. main office for keys. But first read all the information regarding that and get the necessary form here.
Scheduled Labs:
We perform 8 labs in four sets of two. Groups will rotate between labs during each of the 2 week periods. A schedule of what group is doing which lab on which week will be announced here asap.
|
Week 1 |
Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | |
| Hall effect | Birju and Dominic | Greg and Alex | ||||||
| Muon lifetime | Greg and Alex | Birju and Dominic | ||||||
| Pulsed NMR | Birju and Dominic | Greg and Alex | ||||||
| Photo-electric effect and h/e measurement | Greg and Alex | Birju and Dominic | ||||||
| Nuclear spectroscopy | Birju and Dominic | Greg and Alex | ||||||
| Franck-Hertz experiment | Greg and Alex | Birju and Dominic | ||||||
| Rutherford scattering | Greg and Alex | Birju and Dominic | ||||||
| Zeeman effect | Birju and Dominic | Greg and Alex |
Class Schedule: Be prepared for changes to the below schedule, particularly with regard to student presentations
All classes will begin at
Thursday, September 7:
First day of University fall classes
Monday, September 11:
NO CLASS
Monday, September 18:
Lecture and orientation: 1h+ class
Monday, September 25: Sample lab presentation by NPA, 1st Lab week
Monday, October 2: Lab week 2, No presentation
Monday, October 9: Lab week 3, No presentation
Monday, October 16: Fall Break Day - No class or lab scheduled for this week
Monday October 23: 1st student presentation, Lab week 4
Monday October 30th: NPA not here, Lab week 5
Monday November 6: 2nd student
presentation, Lab week 6
Monday November 13: 3rd student presentations, Lab week 7
Monday, November 20:
Beginning of Thanksgiving Week - No class or lab scheduled
Monday, November 27: 4th student presentation, Lab week 8
Monday, December 11 Last day of classes, All reports for the semester due
Grades:
The first three and the final lab reports are due within 2 weeks after the Monday in which a lab was started. All others are due within three weeks of the Monday the lab is begun. As this class satisfies the Hopkins 'W' writing requirement, comments will be given on the first 3 reports within one week after turning them in. Students will then need to submit revised lab reports on the first 3 labs within an additional week based on the comments. The grades for these first three labs are based on the revised reports. The last lab report is due within 2 weeks so there is sufficient time to submit grades.
Reports should be submitted electronically in .pdf format to npa@pha.jhu.edu. In the subject line you should specify what the lab is and what # lab in your sequence it is.
Grades will be based on a 70% combination of the average 7 best lab reports (i.e. one lab report is not counted), 20% the quality of a 20m oral presentation to be given in class and 10% a subjective ‘participation’ score based on your efforts in the lab itself. Note that the first three reports do need to submitted to fufill the 'W' requirements and all labs need to be performed in class irrespective of dropping a lab report.
Laboratory work is by its nature collaborative and so it is encouraged that teams work closely together while performing experiments and doing data analysis. Lab reports should obviously be written up completely separately. Separate lab notebooks/records should also be kept.
Lab Reports:
There is a major emphasis in this class on writing clear, informative, and (approaching) professional quality lab reports. If you continue on in science you will find that one of the primary ways your impact in your job or field is judged will be through the quality of your technical writing. It is important to spend the time now developing the skillz that communicate your results clearly, informatively, and hopefully not boring-ly.
Reports will be judged on how well they describe the manner in which the experiments were performed, the results that were arrived at, the manner in which they are presented, and a sense of the experimenter's technical virtuosity in performing the measurements. Significant attention should be paid as well to providing background information for the measurements and putting the experiments in the context of the larger physics that they are illuminating. Be creative! There are extra points for creativity. For instance, one could give a short segue on the historical background of how some seminal experiment changed our view of the world. You could think of ways outside of what is in the given presentation material to present the data. Are there other quantities that arise in the measurements that could be plotted? Could you characterize some aspect of the measurement apparatus in a way that would be illuminating, but was not asked for? Etc. etc. Doing these things kind of things, along with demonstrating general competence will put you well on your way to receiving an 'A' in the class.
Reports should be compiled using the LaTex typesetting environment and the American Physical Society PRB style file. I recommend using WinEdt for typsetting. WidEdt is available on the PUC computers. Latex may seem formidable (and overly complicated), but it is the standard for technical manuscript submission. Once you're using it, you will see the elegance and power of moving beyond WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) manuscript preparation. I (NPA) was resistant once myself, but there is no zealot like a convert!
It is encouraged that analysis be done with Igor PRO, which is a standard data analyis package in condensed matter and atomic physics (and Wall Street!). I (NPA) will give a demonstration of it on Sept. 18th. Steve Wonnell has installation CDs if you would like to install it on your personal computer. It is also on the PUC cluster.
An APS Latex manuscript template, a dummy .eps file (to try compiling it yourself), and a .pdf of the resulting output can be found here. If you're using WinEdt it should be fairly straightforward to generate a pdf file using this template.
Presentations:
All students will give a 20 minute presentation (with 5-10 minutes question and answer at the end) at some point in the semester in the class period beginning at 12:00. Some weeks two presentations will be scheduled. The schedule will be determined asap and posted below. Attendance at these presentations is mandatory for all students. If you need to miss a class, discuss with NPA. It is encouraged that all students in addition to the TA and professor be involved in the Q & A.
Presentations should be given via computer with Powerpoint (or equivalent) software. If you don't have a laptop, we can arrange with Steven Wonnell to borrow a departmental one. In this case you would compose the presentation on a PUC or home computer and then transfer the file to the borrowed laptop.
Note that NPA will give a sample presentation on Sept. 25th so you will have a general idea of what should go into the presentation.
Presentation schedule:
Presentation 1: Greg, Monday October 23
Presentation 2: Dominic, Monday November 6
Presentation 3: Alex, Monday November 13
Presentation 4: Birju, Monday, November 27
Comments? Questions? email npa@pha.jhu.edu
modified npa@pha.jhu.edu 2006-11-12