Main Page/PHYS 3220/Lab Expectations

In this course you will do 4 from a list of ~15 experiments on a variety of modern topics. You must do at least 2 experiments from the short list below and any 2 other experiments.

• 3-1 Measurement of the Gravitation Constant G: The Cavendish Experiment
• 3-2 A Measurement of the Velocity of Light: The Foucault-Michelson Experiment
• 3-7 The Excitation Potentials of Mercury: The Franck-Hertz Experiment
• 3-11 Radioactive Decays

The reports are expected to be of the format used in typical refereed journals for physics like Physical Review (Letters and A though E etc…) and Journal of Physics. Having completed the 3220 you will be familiar with the expected format for upper year lab reports. The markers will not be lenient with style marks so please don’t expect poorly formatted labs to receive high grades.

You may wish to spend a few hours and skim some articles to again familiarize yourself with the format. While these articles often leave out section titles and will often mix sections your reports should be separated into titled sections so the marker can see that you didn’t miss something. A summary of requirements for the report is given in the Lab Reports section of this handout.

Once you have submitted these 4 reports we invite you to do more experiments to sample more experimental techniques and increase your skill set for futures in a research laboratory. If you have submitted all 4 reports on time, one extra “short report” will be accepted for a 5% bonus. See Cody if you would like to exercise this option. This option will only be available to those who have handed all of the labs in on time.