PHY 105 Assignments

Physics 105/106 Lab Guidelines

Dr. Richard Di Dio

Your grade in this lab constitutes 25% of your grade in the Physics 105/106 course. A combination of group lab reports, lab tests, and lab participation will determine this grade.

There will be approx. 10 labs, with each lab worth 75%/(N_labs) of the final lab grade. The lowest lab grade will be dropped and the highest counted twice.

There will be two (2) lab tests, each worth 7.5% of the final lab grade

Participation will make up the remaining 10% of your lab grade. Participation grade is based on:

Being present, and on-time for each lab
Being prepared for the labs, including having a print-out of that day's lab
Maintaining cleanliness of your lab area.

Note that you must pass the lab part and lecture part of the course separately in order to pass PHY 105 or 106.

To pass the lab section of PHY 105 or 106 you must score a 60% out of a possible 100% lab grade, where the relative weights of the lab grade are:

Reports	75%
Tests	15%
Participation	10%

Notes

2 students/group
A report is written as a group and should represent a group effort. Your reports involve the analysis of the data you have taken in the lab. Reports should be written in Word with Excel plots pasted in them. Unless otherwise noted, lab reports are due one week from the lab date, at the beginning of the next lab.
There will be a 50-point reduction for each day, or part of a day late
No printing of lab reports is permitted in the lab.
Occasional printing of graphs/data generated during a lab is permitted.
If you miss a lab it will count as the dropped lab. More than one missed lab will count as a zero for that lab. (Remember that you are responsible for the material from all of the labs for the lab tests.)
You are permitted to use copies of the lab handouts and labs for the tests. (You must have your own copies of the lab for the test; you cannot pass labs between partners during the test.)
Be careful when pasting Excel charts into Word - embedding/linking often leads to very large Word files. Use Paste Special|Copy as Picture for smaller files.
Save all of your computer files to your network folder as well as on a removable medium(floppy or zip).

What goes into a report?

Abstract: State what was done succinctly, including your results. This should be phrased in language a knowledgeable scientist would understand. Do not focus on the purpose or a step-by-step description of the experiment.

Typical errors (points off) in this section include: the paragraph is not an abstract but an introduction, poor/incomplete phrasing, and grammar.

Introduction: Short discussion of each of the main topics.

Typical errors in this section are due to verbosity, poor/incomplete phrasing, grammar and plagiarism.

Body: Procedure and data analysis. The procedure should not contain "obvious or tedious" information like "...put the plug into the interface..." The data listed should be essential data (if there is "lots" of data then present it as a graph).

Typical errors (points off) in this section include: mislabeled units or no units identified, errors in calculations, labeling graph axes incorrectly, sloppy presentation of data, not doing all parts of the lab including answering questions, grammar and plagiarism.

Formatting: Tables and graphs (pasted from Excel) should be near the discussions referring to them. The appropriate symbols, subscripts and superscripts should be used.

Conclusion: This should be a scientific conclusion containing what was found and your agreement with theory. If you results disagree with theory, then a good explanation should be provided.

Typical errors (points off) in this section are just reporting what was done with no conclusion, e.g. not comparing your results with theory. Examples of non-scientific conclusions are "…this is a good lab…a fun lab…we hated it."

NOTE: Typically physical quantities have units (e.g. meters, seconds, etc.). Points will be taken off if they are not included

WARNING: Do Not Use the phrase "This lab proved...", or any phrase with similar meaning!!! Your labs are one-time observations, and do not constitute proof of any theory. Your lab results are consistent with theory (hopefully)!.