TA schedule: All TA's will meet with the professor every Friday at 1 PM in Room Physics 3219. During this session the TA will prepare for the following week's lab. TAs will meet with Professor Jawahery on Friday, August 29 at 2pm. Meeting room will be announced.
During the initial week (Sept. 2-4), TA's should be present in their assigned sections. The TA may discuss physics and the upcoming labs with the students. Each TA should familiarize herself/himself with experiments 0 through 4 during this week. The apparatus for all experiments will be set up in the lab during the first week.
Teaching Asistant Schedule
Friday, Sept 5 (1pm) Lab 0
Friday, Sept 12 (1pm) Lab 1
Friday, Sept 19 (1pm) Lab 2 Grades due Labs (0-1)
Friday, Sept 26 (1pm) Lab 3
Friday, Oct 3 (1pm) Lab 4
Friday, Oct 10 (1pm) No meeting
Friday, Oct 17 (1pm) Grades due Labs (0-4)
Friday, Oct 24 (1pm) Lab 5 Grades due for
first culminative Lab
Friday, Oct 31 (1pm) Lab 6
Friday, Nov 7 (1pm) Lab 7
Friday, Nov 14 (1pm) Lab 8
Friday, Nov 21 (1pm) Grades due Labs (0-8)
Friday, Nov 28 (1pm) No meeting (Thanksgiving week)
Friday, Dec 5 (1pm) No meeting
Friday, Dec 12 (1pm) All grades due
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | |
8:00 | Sect 0101 | Sect 0109 | |||
9:00 | Sect 0101 | Sect 0109 | |||
10:00 | Sect 0101 | Sect 0104 | Sect 0109 | ||
11:00 | Sect 0104 | Sect 0114 | |||
12:00 | Sect 0102 | Sect 0104 | Sect 0114 | ||
13:00 | Sect 0102 | Sect 0105 | Sect 0111 | Sect 0114 | TA Meeting |
14:00 | Sect 0102 | Sect 0105 | Sect 0111 | Sect 0117 | TA Meeting |
15:00 | Sect 0103 | Sect 0105 | Sect 0111 | Sect 0117 | |
16:00 | Sect 0103 | Sect 0110 | Sect 0112 | Sect 0117 | |
17:00 | Sect 0103 | Sect 0110 | Sect 0112 | ||
18:00 | Sect 0110 | Sect 0112 | |||
19:00 | Sect 0106 | Sect 0107 | Sect 0108 | Sect 0118 | |
20:00 | Sect 0106 | Sect 0107 | Sect 0108 | Sect 0118 | |
21:00 | Sect 0106 | Sect 0107 | Sect 0108 | Sect 0118 |
Physics 261 is the laboratory associated with of Physics 260 and meets in room Phys-3219. This course carries one credit. You must pass Physics 260 as well as 261. If you do not pass 261 you will be required to repeat both 260 and 261. The grade for Physics 261 will be identical to that of Physics 260 (as required by the Engineering College) The labs meet for three hours a week and you will be expected to complete eight regular labs and two culminating laboratory activities. You must complete all of the labs, including the culminating labs in order to pass the course. You are expected to attend each class and will be allowed to make up labs only under exceptional circumstances. Lab 0 (spreadsheet) is also required and must be turned in before you attempt Experiment 1.
During the three hour laboratory period, you will have a brief introduction about the lab, perform the experiment, do your analysis and write-up and turn in your report. The experiment should take less than two hours to perform (including the introduction), but in order for you to complete your work in the allotted time you must read the lab write-up before coming to class and answer the prelab questions.
The Physics 261 laboratory uses spreadsheets (Excel) to analyze data. You therefore will be expected to use the spreadsheet the same way as any other tool in the lab. You should have been exposed to the spreadsheet in your engineering courses, but Experiment 0 offers a simple tutorial on spreadsheets in general and specifically Excel.
Our aim in this lab is to enhance the understanding of the laboratory experiments you perform while at the same time minimizing the amount of time spent on analysis and write-ups. This means, it is not necessary to do extensive write-ups. Overly long or padded lab reports will be penalized. Each week's lab includes a prelab assignment. The culminating labs are special labs where you will be given questions about a number of the labs you performed during the semester. The list of possible questions is included in the lab manual and you should review the ones for each lab after you have completed that experiment. This will make the culminating lab much easier! More questions may be handed out during the semester.
The course grade for Physics 261 will be determined as follows:
70% for the eight regular labs
30% for the culminating laboratories.
The scoring on the regular labs will be based approximately as follows:
Prelab 20% ( 0, 10%, 20%)
Data 40%
Analysis 25%
Questions 15%
The prelab will graded in units of 10%. In order to get 20% on the prelab you must make a sincere attempt to do the prelab completely. Incomplete or poorly done prelabs will be graded at either 0 or 10%. You will work with lab partners and will share data with them. However, you will be responsible for doing your own analysis and write-up. Each person in the group will also be required to demonstrate proficiency with the spreadsheet. You will be tested on this basic skill during the lab sessions. If by the end of the second lab, you cannot demonstrate to your teaching assistant the ability to do simple tasks on the spreadsheet your grade will be progressively reduced each week until you can. The point is: you must learn to use the spreadsheet. You must buy the current lab manual available at the bookstore.
The first labs
will be held the week of September 8-11.
Sept 2-5 No Lab.
Sept 8-12 Experiment 0 --- Introduction to Data Analysis with Spreadsheets
Sept 15-19 Experiment 1 --- Introduction to Error Analysis
Sept 22-26 Experiment 2 --- The Pendulum
Sept 29-Oct 3 Experiment 3 --- Forced Harmonic Motion
Oct. 6-10 Experiment 4 --- The Vibrating String
Oct. 13-17 Make-up and Discussion week
Oct. 20-24 First Culminating Lab. (Experiments 0-4)
Oct. 27-31 Experiment 5 --- Position Velocity and Acceleration
Nov. 3-7 Experiment 6 --- Centripetal Force and Acceleration
Nov. 10-14 Experiment 7 –--The Ideal Gas Law and Absolute Zero Temperature
Nov. 17-20 Experiment 8 --- Equipotentials and Fields
Nov. 24-28 Thanksgiving Week
Dec. 1-5 Make-up and Discussion Week
Dec. 8-12 Second Culminating Lab. (Experiments 5-8)
Hurricane Isabel Schedule Changes
Because classes were cancelled on Thursday, September 18, the schedule for sections 0114, 0117, 0118 is as follows,
Thursday, September 25 Lab1
Thursday, October 2 Lab3
Thursday, October 9 Lab4
Thursday, October 16 Lab2 (makeup week)
All students in sections 0114, 0117, 0118 must take Lab2 during makeup week if they are to get credit for P261.
During makeup week (Oct 13 - 15), all labs will be available for makeup
on Monday through Wednesday only. There will be no makeup labs on Thursday.
You must do and write up all labs. If you have
missed a lab for
an excused reason (illness, religious holiday, etc) try if possible to
attend another lab that same week. Most TA's will be accommodating. If this
fails, you may, with permission of the Professor, perform the lab during
make-up week for that lab. Make sure that your write-up gets to the TA of your
regularly scheduled section. (Put your name, section number and time it meets
on all sheets.)
Let your regular TA know when and with whom you carried out a make-up lab.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you are credited for all lab reports.
Do not throw out returned lab reports until the semester is over.
The University is one of a small number of universities with a
student-administered Honor Code and an Honor Pledge, available on the web at
www.jpo.umd.edu/aca/honorpledge.html. The Code prohibits students
from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for
credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting
fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. Compliance with the code
is administered by the Student Hour Council (phone: 314-9154) and it is
expected that you will comply with the Code throughout your participation in
the P261 laboratory activities.
CORE Lab Science Requirement: Lecture and Lab Courses,
PHYS 260: GENERAL PHYSICS: VIBRATIONS, WAVES, HEAT,
ELECTRICITY, & MAGNETISM (LECTURE)
and PHYS 261: GENERAL PHYSICS: VIBRATIONS, WAVES, HEAT,
ELECTRICITY, & MAGNETISM (LAB) must be taken in the same
semester to count for CORE Lab Science. PHYS 260
taken alone will NOT count as a non-lab
science for CORE.
LAB | TA Meeting | ||
Sept 2-4 | No lab | Sept 5 | Lab 0 |
Sept 8-11 | Lab 0 | Sept 12 | Lab 1 |
Sept 15-18 | Lab 1 | Sept 19 | Lab 2 |
Sept 22-25 | Lab 2 | Sept 26 | Lab 3 |
Sept 29-Oct 2 | Lab 3 | Oct 3 | Lab 4 |
Oct 6-9 | Lab 4 | Oct 10 | No meeting |
Oct 13-16 | Make-up | Oct 17 | No meeting |
Oct 20-23 | Cul. Lab | Oct 24 | Lab 5 |
Oct 27-30 | Lab 5 | Oct 31 | Lab 6 |
Nov 3-6 | Lab 6 | Nov 7 | Lab 7 |
Nov 10-13 | Lab 7 | Nov 14 | Lab 8 |
Nov 17-20 | Lab 8 | Nov 21 | No meeting |
Nov 24-27 | Thanksgiving week | Nov 28 | No meeting (TW) |
Dec 1-4 | Make-up | Dec 5 | No meeting |
Dec 8-11 | Cul.Lab | Dec 12 | Grading meeting |
Dec 15-19 | Exam week |