Phys 417 Modern Physics Laboratory
Spring 2007

Phys 417 is an introductory Modern Physics Laboratory to accompany Modern Physics courses Phys 317 and 428. Measurements of electron charge and mass, atomic energy levels, nuclear decay, superconductivity, speed of light, Si diodes, electron spin resonance, and cosmic rays are some experiments performed with modern instrumentation. The lab should be taken after Phys 317, 428 or with consent of the instructor.

You will be required to write lab reports and make presentations of your data. Some knowledge
word processing, and graphical analysis is required.

Instructor:   Dr. Cremaldi

Office:        Room 209 Lewis Hall

Text:           Website and handouts

Time : 1-3 T Th +(flexible hrs per week)

Office Hours: 9:00-11:00 MT

Goals: To perform fundamental experiments in modern physics while learning electronic instrumentation and experimental procedures. Emphasis is placed on analysis of data with proper error handling techniques.

Skills
1. To develop a your skills in the management of data collected in experiments.

2. To improve your ability to represent your data in forms which are most useful for analysis.

3. To advance your skills in data analysis, learning methods of fitting functions to the data, and determining the goodness of the agreement between the function and the data.

4. To refine your error analysis skills to obtain estimations of the uncertainty in values calculated from measured quantities.

5. To deepen your understanding of the meaning and significance of the errors quoted in measured
quantites.

5. To expand your talents for describing your results in terms which properly reflect what you can legitimately claim on the basis of your data analysis and estimated errors.

Grading Policy: laboratory reports/presenations 50%
1 midtern 25%
1 final 25%

A 100-90
B 90-80
C 80-70
D <70