PHYSICS 405 COURSE DESCRIPTION

Fall, 2009

Lecture Room 1219 Physics Building

Laboratory 3210 Physics Building

Physics 405 is an advanced undergraduate laboratory course for physics majors with experiments from many fields of modern physics. Students have full access to the experimental equipment and establish their own work schedules and methods under the guidance of faculty and staff. Emphasis is on independent experiment preparation, data acquisition, data analysis, and scientific report preparation. There is an oral presentation at the end of the course. 

PREREQUISITE: Physics 375

LECTURES: Wednesday 12:00-1:00 PM, Lecture Room 1219 Physics Building

COURSE WEB SITE:
 http://elms.umd.edu  then select link for Physics 405.

INSTRUCTORS:

Professor Hassan Jawahery

Phone: 301-405-6062

Office: 4310 Physics Building

Email: jawahery@umd.edu

Professor Michael Coplan

Phone: 301-405-4858

Office: 3215 CSS Building

Email: coplan@umd.edu

TEACHING ASSISTANT

Mr. Solomon Granor

Phone: 301-405-6073

Office: 4219 Physics Building

Email  sgranor@umd.edu


LABORATORY STAFF

Mr. Allen Monroe

Phone: 301-405-6002

Office: 3311 Physics Building

Office Hours: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. M-F

Email: amonroe@physics.umd.edu

Mr. Thomas Baldwin

Phone: 301-405-6004

Office: 3202 Physics Building

Office Hours: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. M-F

Email: tbald@physics.umd.edu

SCHEDULE:


Instructor and TA laboratory hours will be announced in class and posted in the laboratory and on the course web site.


The laboratories are open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and on Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  If you arrive before the door is open, ask Mr. Monroe or Mr. Baldwin to open the laboratory for you.  If you are the last person to leave any one of the laboratory rooms, please close the door.  If you are returning, have Mr. Monroe or Mr. Baldwin open the door again when you return.  You must be finished with your work when the laboratory closes.  If you are not finished taking data at 5:00 p.m. and you are signed up for the following day, leave a note on your experiment so that a staff member does not disassemble your experiment.




TEXT and MATERIALS:

Physics 405 Laboratory Manual – Department of Physics, Fall 2008 edition.

This will be available electronically on the Physics 405 web site. This version is not available in print.

Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences, - Phillip R. Bevington and D. Keith Robinson (McGraw Hill, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-07-247227-8) or

An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurement – John R. Taylor (University Science Books, 1997, ISBN 0-935702-75-X).

You are required to have two (2) laboratory notebooks.  Two are required so that you can work in one notebook while the other is being graded.  Acceptable laboratory notebooks should be 8.5" x 11" or larger, should be bound, and have numbered, quad-ruled pages.  Pages should be permanent and unperforated.



LECTURES:



There will be a one-hour lecture from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. in room, 1219 Physics Building on Wednesdays. We will cover error analysis, laboratory measurement techniques, vacuum technology, detector operation, basic electronics, signal analysis and any other topics germane to the course. You will be responsible for understanding the material presented in lecture and, when appropriate, expected to include some of this material in your notebook reports and in your final formal report. If you miss a lecture you are responsible for finding out from a classmate what was covered.  During the latter part of the course, the lecture period will be used for 12-minute student presentations. Attendance at the presentations is mandatory. You will not pass the course if you do not attend all presentations unless you have a valid excuse approved by an instructor, You are responsible for knowing the presentation schedule.

EXPERIMENTS:



In order to pass the course, 6 units of work must be completed, which will typically consist of four to six experiments. Failure to complete all 6 units will result in failing the class; completion is defined as performing the laboratory and turning a laboratory notebook to be graded.  Each student is required to work on the experiments entirely by her/himself. At the completion of each experiment, you will need to hand in the laboratory notebook for grading. This means that it will be necessary to have at least 2 laboratory notebooks in order to have one available while the other is being graded. Every attempt will be made to grade your experiments promptly so that you will be able to improve your next report before handing it in. The notebook reports are meant to be your notes and documentation of your work in the laboratory, and are not meant to be a formal write-up. (Please refer to the laboratory manual for more information on the notebooks.)

Your first experiment must be a one-unit experiment. (in order to total six units, you must therefore complete at least one other one-unit experiment).  You may do either zero, one, or two two-unit experiments.


 SCHEDULING EXPERIMENTS:



There will be an online sign-up sheet that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection or from the computer in Rm. 3210. The url is http://www.physics.umd.edu/cgi-script/courses/p405.pl You must request time each week to perform your experiments. Time slots are available in ½-day periods.  In order to save your experimental setup, you must sign up for two consecutive periods.  Also, please dismantle your setup when you have completed your data taking.  

Prior to carrying out an experiment, you are required to complete the preparatory questions at the start of the experiment.  There is a spot on the course website for you to electronically submit the prep questions, or you can hand them in on a piece of paper at the beginning of the class period in which they are due.  You must have the prep questions examined and initialed by either the instructor or the TA before you begin the experiment.

DUE DATES FOR THE NOTEBOOK REPORTS:

Notebook reports are due according to the schedule shown in the syllabus.  There is a 1-point penalty per day for late reports.

FORMAL REPORT:



One of the four to 6 experiments is to be rewritten as a formal report and is to be turned in by Friday, December 11, 2009. Please refer to the laboratory manual and the information on the Blackboard page for the format of the formal report.



ORAL PRESENTATION:



Each student will be expected to give one 12-minute presentation on an experiment of his or her choice.  The talks will be followed by questions from other students, the TA and instructors.


HOMEWORK:



Several times during the semester a short set of homework problems will be assigned. The purpose of these problems is to review and strengthen your understanding of error analysis you will be performing in your laboratories, as well as provide experience with common experimental issues.  



GRADES:

Notebooks (20 per unit)	60%
Homework	10%
Formal report	15%
12-minute talk	15%
TOTAL	100%




VALID EXCUSES:



If you have a valid excuse for missing a due date for a notebook report or a 12-minute presentation (e.g. a medical emergency) see one of the instructors to make alternate arrangements, beforehand if at all possible. Ex post facto (after the fact) excuses will require validation and may not be acceptable. You must speak to one of the instructors. The TA does not have the authority to make alternate arrangements.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY (CHEATING):

Academic dishonesty is a serious offense that may result in suspension or expulsion from the university. In addition to any other action taken, the normal sanction is a grade of "XF", denoting "failure due to academic dishonesty," and will normally be recorded on the transcript of the offending student. Remember, you are required to perform all experiments, analysis, and write-up independently. It is OK to discuss the experiments with other students but you must do the work.

TIPS FOR DOING WELL:

Read the laboratory manual carefully before attempting an experiment.

 Answer the pre-laboratory questions in your notebook and have them checked by the professor or TA before you begin the experiment. 

Keep a complete log for the experiment including experimental diagrams of measurement configurations used to obtain data, results, estimates of various errors and limitations to the measurements, analysis used to obtain final results and a proper estimate of all errors including systematic errors as well as statistical errors. 

Show clearly the reasoning used to arrive at conclusions. If the experimental result does not agree with the known or accepted values, your documented reasoning may be the only clue that the TA or the instructor has for determining what went wrong. Additional information, a list of experiments and more detailed help can be found at the course website. 

Good time management is essential for success in this class. Don't fall behind!  Don't wait until the last day to do an experiment!

IMPORTANT DATES:

First meeting: Wednesday, September 2; Introduction to the lab

First Class Lecture: Wednesday, September 9

Labor Day: Monday, September 7

Last Day for Schedule Adjustment

Last Day to Drop with a "W": Monday, November 9

Thanksgiving Recess: Thursday, November 26 and Friday, November 27

Final Report Due: Friday, December 11

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE (subject to revision)

Dates	Lecture	Reading	Due Dates
9/2	Introduction, Experiments	Survey Laboratory Manual
9/9	Lecture 1, Radiation Safety		Unit #1 Prelab(*)
9/16	Lecture 2: Statistics: Random & Systematic errors	Bevington Ch. 1-2 , Taylor Ch. 3,4,5,10,11	Homework #1
9/23	Lecture 3, Linear Least Squares Fitting	Bevington Ch. 6-8, Taylor Ch. 7, 8,12	Unit #1 Notebook Homework #2
9/30	Lecture 4, Electronics	Building Scientific Apparatus, Ch. 6	Homework #3
10/7	Lecture 5, Vacuum Technology	Building Scientific Apparatus, Ch. 3	Unit #2 Notebook Homework #4
10/14	Tour of campus reactor
10/21	Lecture 6, Detectors	Building Scientific Apparatus, Ch. 7	Unit #3 Notebook Homework #5
10/28			Homework #6
11/4	12 Min. Presentations		Unit #4 Notebook
11/11	12 Min. Presentations
11/18	12 Min. Presentations		Unit #5 Notebook
11/25	12 Min. Presentations
12/2	12 Min. Presentations		Unit #6 Notebook
12/9	12 Min. Presentations
12/11			Final Report

*All subsequent pre-laboratory questions must be completed and checked (initialed) by the TA or an instructor before laboratory work can start. The laboratory notebook due dates correspond to one-unit laboratories. You will have twice as long to complete two-unit laboratories. Due date time is 12:00 noon unless otherwise specified.

NOTEBOOKS:

Laboratory notebooks should give a complete description of the way the experiment was performed and the way the data were analyzed. Another person should be able to take the notebook and duplicate the experiment. Below is a list of the essential elements of the notebook report:

· Notebook reports written in ink in a laboratory notebook with quad-ruled, numbered pages. Mistakes not be erased, scratched over or covered with White-Out. A single line is to be drawn through mistakes.

· All graphs staples, passed or taped in the notebook. The graph axes be labeled. Formulas, derivations, and discussions necessary to understand the graphs included.

· A brief description of theory behind the experiment followed by a clear description of the procedure used to take data. Schematic diagrams of the experimental arrangement along with circuit diagrams of electronics.

· Units for all numbers with appropriate significant figures.

· Estimates of random and systematic errors and the justification for the estimates.

· Analysis of the data using proper error analysis and a description of the analysis methods. If Mathematica is used, include the analysis steps in addition to the Mathematica notebook included in the laboratory notebook.

· Comparison of statistical error with random error (reduced c2).

· Final results with total error (including systematic errors), comparison of the final results with expected values and a discussion of discrepancies.

· Answer to all questions in the Laboratory Manual including discussion questions.

·     All parts of the experiments completed.

Grading

Description of procedure (including prep questions)  3 points

Raw data (including tables, plots, etc) 5 points

Analysis (including errors and final results) 8 points

Remaining topics listed above 4 points

One point will be subtracted from the report grade for each day late. Failure to submit all report will result in an F for the course.

CourseEvalUM Fall 2009

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