Junior Physics Laboratory
Experimental Physics for all courses
|
You will normally be scheduled into one,
three-hour practical session per week . Your first laboratory
session is during the second week of semester. Registration
will take place during this session.
In Semester One, the laboratory course consists of
the following strands:
|
| Duration in weeks |
PHYS 1901 (Advanced) |
PHYS 1001 (Regular) |
PHYS 1002 (Fundamentals) |
| 4 |
Wave motion; lenses; planning and problem
solving skills, including use of computers in physics, data analysis
and uncertainties. |
Mechanics, fluid flow; including
concepts, problem solving, use of computers in physics. |
an introduction to
measurement, data acquisition, analysis skills, statistics and
computer use in the context of mechanics and waves.
|
| 4 |
Computational Physics based on the
study of Chaos. |
Wave motion; lenses; planning and problem
solving skills, including use of computers in physics, data analysis
and uncertainties. |
|
|
Tests on both laboratory and
lecture material are held in the laboratory
through the semester.
|
In Semester Two, students undertake a project, the planning for
which is initiated at the start of this semester. The practical
components for the semester are:
| Duration in weeks |
PHYS 1902 (Advanced) |
PHYS 1003 (Technological) |
PHYS 1004 (Environmental and Life Sciences) |
| 5 |
Electrical Circuits |
Electrical Circuits |
Intro Circuits |
| 4 |
Projects and student presentations |
Projects and student presentations |
Projects and student presentations |
Check your lab marks!
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It is your responsibility to ensure that your lab marks are correctly recorded in our LabRAT system.
Login to LabRAT here.
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Downloading data from the laboratory
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If you have saved your work to directory (E:\STUDATA) after your lab
session, it will be available for downloading from the
Laboratory Download Site
at the end of the day.
You can then work on the data at home and mail it to your University
account which can be read from computers in the lab. This will be
mainly of use for the Projects and Presentations in semester 2.
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Projects in Semester 2
The
Junior Physics Projects page provides a list of resources to help you choose and perform your project. In particular
it includes a list of suggested projects and an indication of the equipment available to complete them. Note that the topics listed are only suggestions!
Extra Laboratory Resources
The following is a collection of resources to assist you with your Experimental Physics course in the lab:
Tests given during laboratory time
Semester 1 - Practice and Skills Tests
The Practice Tests are 'closed book' tests that cover
lecture material in the first lecture module only. They are a chance for you to practise some
questions similar to those in the final exam at the end of the
semester.
The Skills Tests are 'open book' tests designed to test your
ability to record, analyse and graph your experimental results, make
sensible estimates of their uncertainties, and derive a meaningful
conclusion from them.
Semester 2 - Circuits Test
The Circuits Tests concentrate on your understanding of material presented in Laboratory sessions.
Sample Tests
The following sample tests are in the respective Laboratory Manuals,
with answers also provided here (in pdf format)
For all tests, students work individually.