SFSU Physics and Astronomy Department

Physics Project Lab (Ph 490) Syllabus, Spring 2004

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Phys 490.01, 1 unit; Phys 490.02, 2 units: Physics Project Lab. This is a general course in experimental physics, for upper-division physics majors. Experiments from a variety of fields of physics are included. Various applications of computers will be covered, as well as the elements of presentation of scientific results.

• Ph 490.02 First-Year Project-Lab Students. Lecture TW 13:10-14:00, Lab T 14:10-16:55. This two-unit course consists of a one-hour lecture, with weekly homework assigned, and a three-hour lab, coordinated with the lecture.
• Ph 490.01 Second-Year Project-Lab Students. Lab T 14:10-16:55. In this one-unit lab course students work individually on projects chosen from a list of advanced experiments.

Prerequisites: Ph 321, Modern Physics Laboratory. CS 210 and/or 212 advised.

Location: Rooms 120, 123, 124, and 125, Thornton Hall.

Instructor Roger Bland: office TH 316; phones: office 338-2433, lab 338-1969, home 664- 3982 ; office hours M 14:10, in TH 334a, or by email ( bland@stars.sfsu.edu).

Required Work

• Attendance in the lab. Attendance for all three hours of every lab session is mandatory.
• Weekly homework assignments (section 2 only). To be assigned each week, based on the lecture.
• Midterm Report, March 30, 2004. A PowerPoint/WWW presentation on the first lab experiment. (For second-year students this may be a progress report.)
• Written Lab Report, due April 13, 2004. A written report on the first lab experiment, in the style of an AstroPh web preprint (see report/astroph/astroph.html).
• Rewritten Lab Report, due April 27, 2004. Report corrected and modified as necessary, based on instructor's grading of the Written Lab Report.
• Final Report, May 18, 2004. A final PowerPoint/WWW presentation.

Course Objectives

· Learn the scientific system of inquiry, consisting of observation, measurement, and testing of hypothesis.

· Learn to record your work and carry out your analysis in a scientific lab book

· Learn to present your work orally, using modern multimedia tools.

· Learn to present your work in written form, in good scientific writing style.

Grading: Grading will be based heavily on participation: turning in all the homework and attending all of the labs guarantees a B in the course. Grades higher than B will be based on lab-book grades, evaluation of the three reports, and my general evaluation of your lab skills. The reports must be on time to receive full credit.

Work Outside of Class: In general, computer analysis of your data is to be done outside of the scheduled class time. I will stay around after 5:00 to help people with this. We may also schedule another time for graphing, calculations, making web pages, etc.

Midterm Report, March 30, 2004. A PowerPoint/WWW presentation on the first lab experiment. (For second-year students this may be a progress report.) You will make a skeleton web page and post this report there.

Written Lab Report, due Tuesday April 13, 2004. This is a written report in the style of a scientific article reporting research results. The style reference is Physics Review Letters, accessible electronically through the library..

Oral Report, Tuesday, May 18, 2004. This report could be on a different experiment from your web report. The oral report should be in the style of a paper delivered to the American Physical society: 10 minutes long, using a laptop computer and video projector, with 5 minutes for questions. The report should also be posted on the web.

Textbooks: Dunlap's book (below) is recommended for everyone. Bevington's book is a standard.

• R.A. Dunlap, Experimental Physics (Oxford University Press, 1988). This new text has useful information on almost all of our experiments.
• Philip Bevington's Data Reduction and Error Analysis, on order in the bookstore. A standard reference on data reduction for the intermediate-level user. The Fortran examples in this book are often copied.

Lab book: Learning to keep a good scientific lab book is one of the major objectives of this course. Your lab book should be a complete sequential record of what you do in the lab, how you analyzed your data, and what you concluded from the experiment. When you walk into the lab, start by writing the time and date on the first blank page in your book. Then write, in one or two sentences, what you are going to do that day. (Then do it!)

For the first meeting of the lab you should bring a hard-bound square-ruled lab book to write in; the bookstore has Roaring Springs #77475 for $2.95. Also bring an ink pen. You should never write in your lab book in pencil. The lab books may be taken home, but should be turned in by Friday. Slide the lab book under the door of TH 124.

First-Year Experiments

· B2: Counting Statistics. Use a Geiger counter to characterize radioactive sources and to study Gaussian and Poisson statistics.

· B4: Creation and Annihilation of Antimatter. Use a gamma-ray detector to observe evidence for the existence of antimatter; uses a computer-based multi-channel analyzer.

· C2: Speed of Light. Measure time of flight for a laser beam.

· C1: High-Resolution Spectroscopy. Tune up the spectrometer, then observe the isotopic shift of the deuterium spectrum.

· D1: Electron Diffraction. Compare wave and particle properties of electrons.

· D3: Curie Point of a Ferroelectric. Study the temperature dependence of an electret; uses computer data acquisition with low-level instrument control.

· D2: Bragg Diffraction Coherent scattering of X-Rays by crystals; uses computer data acquisition.

Second-Year Experiments

• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. Observe the response of nuclear spins to microwave radiation.
• Electron Spin Resonance. Absorbtion of microwave energy can be used to identify free radicals.
• The Chaotic Pendulum. A driven pendulum exhibits chaotic motion at certain frequencies.
• C4: Double-Slit Interference Pattern. Observe the combination of diffraction and interference, and fit the data to a theoretical model. Uses some computer data acquisition.
• C7: The Cavendish Experiment. Direct measurement of the weakest force of nature. Uses instrumentation controlled by LabView.
• B10: Mössbauer Effect. Observe resonant gamma-ray absorption, to incredible precision; uses the computer-based MCA.
• E4: Mr. SQUID. Measure the characteristics of a SQUID made from a high-TC superconductor.
• B1: Radiation Safety. Learn the rules, find a few hot sources.
• E5. Microwaves: Study polarization, reflection, and refraction of microwaves.
• D4. Diode Characteristic: Use the temperature dependence of the diode current to determine e/kB.
• D5, D6. Properties of Si Wafers: make some qualitative measurements on n- and p-type silicon.
• D3. Curie Point of a Ferroelectric: Study the temperature dependence of an electret; uses computer data acquisition.
• E2. Amplifier Noise: measure the spectrum of the irreducible thermal noise from an operational amplifier.
• C1: High-Resolution Spectroscopy: Tune up the spectrometer, then observe the isotopic shift of the deuterium spectrum.