Physics 201

Gustavus Adolphus College

Fall 2004

Instructors: Dr. Charles Niederriter and Dr. Paul Saulnier

Office: Olin Hall 211 & 208 - Phone: 7315 & 6123

E-Mail: chuck@gac.edu & psaul@gac.edu

Lab Assistants: Jolene Johnson, Heidi Kador, and Nate Souther

Links to Other Sites

Course Policies

1. General: Ten laboratory sessions will be held during the semester.  There will be no lab on October 6, because of Nobel Conference, and November 24 in anticipation of Thanksgiving. 

2. Attendance: Regular attendance at all labs is required. Students will be held responsible for informing themselves of all announcements and assignments made in the laboratory classroom as well as in the Physics 200 daily class meeting. Any last minute communications will be by electronic mail.

3. Makeup: Any student who misses a lab during the semester with a valid (certifiable) excuse, must arrange with the instructor to make up the lab outside of regular class time.

4. Laboratory Work: All lab work for each experiment will be detailed in the lab handout. The work will consist of three parts:

(a) Pre-lab Preparation - The entire lab should be read in preparation for lab class. Pre‑lab exercises must be completed, prior to coming to the lab on Wednesday afternoon.  They will be administered by WebAssign.    A student who has not completed the pre‑lab exercises will not be admitted to the laboratory to perform the experimental part of the lab.  More information on WebAssign will be provided.

(b) Laboratory Experiment - Measurements and calculations to be completed during the two‑hour lab period on Wednesday afternoon.

(c) Analysis and Final Report - There may be calculations to be performed and questions to be answered after leaving the laboratory.  In addition, graphs and/or further data analysis may need to be performed.  Each group should prepare one lab report, consisting of pages from the original handout as well as any additional data sheets, graphs, tables, calculations or results, and arrange and staple all materials in the proper order.  In order to receive credit for the lab, the completed lab report must be turned in one week after the performance of the lab experiment (i.e. on the following Wednesday in lab).  Each person in the group will receive the same grade for the written report.  The instructor may, at his discretion, accept late lab work with a reduction in credit.  In general, there will be a five‑point‑per‑day reduction in credit for late work.

5. Project: The objective of the project is to pull together some aspects of what was discussed during this laboratory, including (non) conservation of energy, friction, air resistance, etc.  The group will work together during the last four weeks of the semester to design and build the fastest pinewood derby car.  The race rules and procedures will be provided when the design phase begins.   Each group will be expected to provide a report explaining the design and discussing how it was arrived at.

6. Evaluation: The student's grade for Physics 31 will be based upon the pre-lab scores (10%), the lab reports (70%), and the lab final (20%).

Laboratory Schedule

Preparation for Laboratory

A description of each experiment is contained in the lab book.  The lab book must be brought to lab.  Students are expected to be thoroughly familiar with the purpose and general procedures of the experiment before coming to lab.

A part of the preparation for the lab will be the completion of the pre‑lab exercises detailed in the lab.  These exercises are to be performed by each member of the group, individually. Clicking on Submit is equivalent to signing the Honor Code.

Lab Reports

The group lab report will be prepared with the idea of presenting the comprehensive results of a particular experiment.  A good lab report should include a discussion of what was done, why it was done, what was measured, what was calculated, comparison to known or accepted values, and any conclusions that could be drawn.