GENERAL PHYSICS LAB 116L (CALCULUS-BASED)
Instructor:
Dr. Tom MichalikTextbook: None. The instructor will provide the information necessary for each lab.
Course Goals: The course goals are to explore the connection between scientific theory and the reality the theory attempts to describe, to practice careful measurement and data analysis, to incorporate measurement uncertainty in every experiment, to learn how uncertainty propagates through calculations leading to experimental results, and to experience hands-on demonstrations of principles discussed in the lecture portion of the course.
Attendance: Lab attendance is expected. Attendance will be taken each lab period. An absence does not relieve you from the responsibility for work required when you are absent. Absences, no matter what the cause, will be resolved individually case-by-case. Talk to me!
Lab Reports: A lab report is usually assigned after each experiment. Although lab data may be shared within an experimental group, individual lab reports are pledged. Lab reports are due at the beginning of the lab period immediately following the lab in which the experiment was done. I do not accept late work or give partial credit for late work. (I make an exception, of course, for illness. Please notify me when you are ill.) The form and content of each lab report will be specified before each experiment is performed. Lab reports will be graded rigorously to insure proper form and good writing. The Excel spreadsheet will be used extensively in the data analysis as well as the lab report.
Tests: There will be no lab tests or exams.
Grading: The course grade comes entirely from lab reports and any other assignments given in lab.
Course Content: The following topics and experiments will be included: Simple Harmonic Motion, Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, Waves in a String, Resonance of Sound Waves, Archimedes' Principle, Properties of Converging Lenses, Double Slit Interference, Electric Field Mapping, Series and Parallel Circuits, and Magnetic Balance.