SFSU Physics and Astronomy Department

January 6, 2005 2:51 PM

Ph 490 Schedule (First Year)

( syllabus| experiments| problem sets )

{ computer programs| tutorials| P&A computers keeping a lab book| |P&A Home Page )

Week	Topics	Reading	Experiments
1 Feb 3	Statistics Review Random Errors Propagation of Errors	B&R Chapters 1-3	Feynman's spaghetti question
2 Feb 10	Propagation of Errors Radioactive Deca;y	Dunlap Ch 11 Lea and Burke, Sec. 36.2 Lab B1 writeup	Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
3 Feb 17	Counting Statistics The binomial distribution The Poisson Distribution Demonstration with Geiger counter	B&R Ch. 2	Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
4 Feb 24	Least-Squares Fitting and Parameter estimation Chi-squared minimization Do a fit with Minsq (or gnufit?)	Ref: B&R Ch 4. Hand out PS 4 (	Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
5 Mar 2	Derivation of Gaussian from binomial distribution.	Turn in PS 4. Hand out PS 5 (central limit theorem).	Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
6 Mar 9	Work on midterm report	Turn in PS 5. Hand out PS 5a (HTML, Powerpoint)	Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
7 Mar 16	Particle Detectors	Turn in PS 5a.	Work on midterm report.
Mar 23	SPRING RECESS	SPRING RECESS	SPRING RECESS
8 Mar 30	Midterm Reports		Counting Statistics Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy Speed of Light
9 Apr 6	Analog Electronics Operational Amplifiers Low-Pass and High-Pass Filters		Use of Protoboard and Operational Amplifiers
10 Apr 13	Digital Electronics AND and OR gates Driving LED's		Prototyping with digital circuits; traffic lights
11 Apr 20	Finish up digital electronics		Traffic lights
12 Apr 27	Fourier analysis and FFT		LabView and Computer Signal Capture; use LabView to acquire voice signals; FFT
13 May 4	Chaos		Projects
14 May 11	Cryogenics and Superconductivity		Projects
15 May 18	Final Reports		High-TCReports