Main Page/PHYS 3220/Student Procedures for Labs

ALL students must have a lab partner for safety reasons and to ensure effective use of TA time. Dialogue between partners, pertaining to the experiment, will greatly enrich the overall experience and is strongly encouraged throughout the course.

Prior to a demonstration you must read the experiment described in the manual, you must also look through red binders located near the experiments. These often include valuable references to material located in your texts, the library, and in the labs. Please take advantage of this resource as it will save you time in the long run and will help you to better comprehend lab demonstrations.

,b>PLEASE TREAT ALL APPARATUS WITH CARE. Many are fragile, expensive and/or dangerous.

Your time is precious, likewise, that of the TAs. It is important that both TAs and students make every effort to be punctual. If, for any reason, you cannot attend your session, please inform the TA, and vice versa.

The experiments are designed so they can be performed within approximately three hours. If you need more time, or the results obtained warrant a second look, stay longer if there is no one signed up after you, or sign up for additional time for experimentation. Justifying “bad” data usually takes a lot more time than another half hour of experimentation.

After the first session with the TA, you may feel prepared to start the experiment with your partner. If you still do not yet feel comfortable you may not prepared as expected before the demonstration. Arrange for a further demonstration and review the resources.