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PHY 310 Intermediate Physics Laboratory I

Important items of business

1. Go to course web site to print copy of syllabus; review syllabus

2. All PHY 310 students are required to conduct the experiment that measures the half-life of a radionuclide; safety matters discussed today.

3. Instructor will provide oral critiques of drafts of reports.

4. Note due dates and times for reports in syllabus:

Caution: You should insure the functionality of the apparatus for any experiment long prior to conducting it.

7 Nov Individual Presentations1: Borders, Craft, DiTrolio, Frost 14 Nov Individual Presentations1: Kneebone, Knight, Lewis. Molu 28 Nov Individual Presentations1:Pearson, Ryan, Van Mol

2 May Group Presentations2

2 Group presentations are assigned as follows: 

1. Speed of light: Borders, Craft, DiTrolio, Frost

2. Fundamental unit of electric charge: Kneebone, Knight, Lewis, Molu

3. Wavelength of visible light: Pearson, Ryan, Van Mol

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Faulty Assumption: Scientists and the research papers they publish are free of errors and biases.

… an example from Nature

Another example of poor writing: From Sigma Xi Smart Brief, 8 August 2012

“Normal-weight patients with type 2 diabetes were nearly twice as likely to die of any cause over a 10- to 30-year period than their heavier counterparts, according to an analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers examined 2,625 patients and found the annual death rate for normal-weight patients was 284.8 per 10,000, compared with only 152.1 deaths per 10,000 among overweight and obese patients. One researcher said the paradox may be due to a predisposition to worse health and a higher risk of mortality among lean people who develop diabetes.”

An example of mediocre writing:

This paper still needs work.

Grade = B+ in PHY 310; B in PHY 320

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Common Errors and Mistakes Document

Available at PHY 310 course web site. Read it.

Common errors, mistakes and shortcomings in PHY 310-320 report submissions plus some extremely good advice • Read you report aloud to yourself. If something does not sound right to you, it likely won’t sound right to me. And you might catch errors like the ‘you’ needing to be ‘your’ in the first sentence. Keep this in mind: If you write it, I must read it – and that includes equations. By the way, weave equations into the narrative so they can be read. Be mindful of correct punctuation. Examine examples in texts so you may emulate them.• Error analysis is essential, i.e. your submission is incomplete without it. The analysis entails a thorough exposition of the details of the method and reasoning you used in arriving at error estimates. This extensive exposition represents an exception to the form of the model paper available on-line.• Descriptive captions are required for figures and tables, including any in an appendix.

• Use expository text to explain any calculation or analysis. Disembodied equations without expository text are unacceptable.• You are permitted up to three misspellings in your report. Four or more misspellings will result in a grade of F for the submission. I will stop evaluating the submission at the fourth misspelling. Be mindful of the standard use of capitalization.• Do not offer unexamined guesses for sources of error. If you speculate, you need to offer rationale and physical mechanisms that you investigated to substantiate some part of your speculation.• You are proscribed from using the words ‘first’, ‘then’, or ‘next’ in the abstract of any submission. Use of any of the proscribed words will result in a grade of F for the submission. Also, do not begin your abstract with the phrase “The purpose of this experiment was …” or any similar formulation. Be wary of the use of the proscribed words even in the narrative.• Do not use weak constructions such as ‘This was done, ‘This was repeated’, ‘This was accomplished,’ or ‘We did this.’• Avoid vague, ineffectual phrases such as ‘fairly accurate’ without quantification.• Be very wary of the use of the word ‘prove.’• Use subscripts and superscripts.

• You invariably need to present the theoretical foundation of an experiment before you describe the experiment. And do not make an “Experimental” section a low-class description of the procedure you followed, having all the warmth and appeal of a Betty Crocker recipe. Examine the model submission available on-line.• Don’t say “… was recorded.” You do not need to fear that the reader supposes you memorized data.• Do not use the term “accepted value.” Give a reference for any published value you quote.• Make the titles of your submission descriptive. Consider the title “Planck’s Constant” versus the title “A determination of Planck’s constant using the photoelectric effect.”

Be extremely wary of any sentence whose subject is the word “there.” Rewrite such a sentence with a proper, strong subject.• Be extremely wary of internet references. Internet references largely are not peer-reviewed and are potentially unreliable. If you submit a report with incorrect information based on an internet reference, your submission will receive a failing grade. You may use up to three internet references; no more. Use published information from peer-reviewed sources.

Questions to consider:

What did you want to do? One sentence, maybe two.

How did you do it? Three to six sentences. What did you find? One sentence, maybe

two.

Note: Audience for all written and oral presentations is a good PHY 310 student, but who has not conducted the experiment.

Suggestions for a good, but pedestrian abstract

Your opportunity to demonstrate you have mastered the background and context

Sets the stage for Theory section Often contains most of the paper’s

references. Format of references: We default to (author, year) rather than use end notes. Why is that format better?

The Introduction

Your opportunity to demonstrate that you have mastered the relevant theory

Not every step in a derivation needs to be explicitly written

Consider the use of an Appendix for details

Sets the stage for the physical parameters you will be measuring and why you will be measuring them.

The Theory section

Your opportunity to demonstrate that you have mastered the techniques to measure the necessary physical parameters to the highest accuracy and precision permitted by the equipment and available time

Your opportunity to demonstrate that you are keenly aware of the experimental indeterminacies of your measurements and other limitations of your techniques.

Note: Exception to format of a usual paper. You must include details of your error analysis. If the details are extensive, then consider an Appendix.

Experimental section

Your opportunity to demonstrate that you can correctly analyze and interpret your data

Your opportunity to specifically state the limitations of your results

Results or Discussion section

Some experiments are more difficult to conduct and report

Standards vary through the semester and the sequence

Relative comparisons among class members past and present

Judging relative quality is rather easy

Evaluating submissions: Many factors to consider

Which is the better drawing of an anteater?

Which is the best sentence?

(1) There are fifty states in the United States of America.

(2) There are fifty states comprising the United States of America.

(3) Fifty states make up the United States of America

(4) Fifty states comprise the United States of America.

2 + 2 = 17.2

∫ x2 dx = x3

Why?

Lastly: Which is a worse error?