College Physics Laboratory Syllabus
Professor: Ken Koehler
Office: Muntz 372
Office Hours: TWH 3:00-3:50, F 2:00-2:50 and by appt.
Telephone: 745-5782
E-mail: koehlekr@ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu
Corequisite
College Physics
Attendance Policy
Failure to attend class will result in the following:
- 0 to 10% of class meetings missed: no grade reduction
- 11 to 20% of class meetings missed: final grade is reduced by one letter grade
- 21 to 30% of class meetings missed: final grade is reduced by two letter grades
- more than 30% of class meetings missed: final grade is an F
Attendance will be taken at the start of each class period. If you are not present when it is taken, it counts as a missed class.
Students who miss class are responsible for making up the work missed.
Grades
Each laboratory report is due one week after the corresponding exercise is completed. Your grade starts as an "A" and
one letter grade is deducted for each incomplete lab report. Any of the following constitutes an incomplete lab report:
- missing data items, answers to questions or graphs;
- graphs not done on graph paper or with a computer;
- graphs with incorrect scale, or incorrectly plotted data or line fits;
- data or results which do not agree with your lab partners' (all computations are to be done independently, and then checked against your lab partners' results to catch mistakes);
- lab reports not turned in at the beginning of the lab period one week after completing the exercise.
Lab reports will be turned in and verified electronically using the forms below.
Because most numbers do not have finite representations in computers, it is important that when entering values
for repeated trials, not all trials have the same value. It they were to all have the same value, and your error
calculations result in zero error, it is likely that the computer in its limited precision will disagree with you.
Schedule
Autumn Quarter
- Absolute and Relative Error in measuring g: method 1
- Absolute and Relative Error in measuring g: method 2
- Two-dimensional Equilibrium
- Hooke's Law and Simple Harmonic Motion
- Two-Dimensional Motion and Conservation of Energy
- Conservation of Momentum in Collisions
- Angular Motion and Torque
- Conservation of Angular Momentum
Winter Quarter
- Measuring Electric Charge
- Mapping the Electric Potential
- Modeling the Cardiovascular System with an Electrical Circuit
- Modeling an Axon with an Electrical Circuit
- Examining Beat Frequencies
- The Speed of Sound on a String
- Measuring the Index of Refraction
Spring Quarter
- Magnetic Fields Due to Currents
- Observing Diffraction
- Examining Spectra
- Simulating a Random Walk
- Measuring the Latent Heat of Fusion
- Measuring Thermal Conductivity
- Measuring Thermodynamic Efficiency
Extra
- Determining Normal Modes of Vibration
©2009, Kenneth R. Koehler. All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely reproduced provided that this copyright notice is included.
Please send comments or suggestions to the author.