Physics 111 Laboratory

Winter 2025

Professor: Scott LaBrake, Ph.D.

Course: Physics 111 Laboratory

Email: labrakes@union.edu

Phone: 518-388-6053

Office Hours: M: 11:00^am - 3:00^pm; WF: 10:30^am - 11:30^am; Sun: 9:00^am - 11:00^am

Office: ISEC 119

Web: http://minerva.union.edu/labrakes

Course: 

This course serves as an introduction to those basic concepts of physics that form the foundation of all the natural sciences.  The second of a two-course sequence in Physics for the Life Sciences, this course serves to introduce the student to the fundamental laws of electricity, magenetism, optics and nuclear physics. These laws are applied to a variety of simple systems including many from the biological sciences.  Throughout the course the conservation laws serve as unifying physical principles.  Mathematics, a powerful tool in the understanding of natural phenomena, assumes its natural role.

Attendance/Expectations: 

·              Attendance is mandatory!  It is expected that you will attend lab at your scheduled time and be present for the duration of the laboratory time.  Do not assume that you may merely attend the other section. 

·              Missed labs may be made up at the discression of the instructor.  Please talk to your lab instructor about any missing/missed labs.

·             In order to pass physics 111 you must obtain a passing grade in lab.  In order to do this, you need to do more than just attend the labs.  You need to hand in something for every laboratory exercise that you perform.  What is required to be handed in will be announced in lab.

·              It is the policy of the department that students must score 70% or higher on the lab component of the course in order to pass PHY 111. 

·              Your participation in the completion of the laboratory will be factored into your final grade.  This means that you should not just sit idly by and let your lab partner(s) perform the lab.  Further, it is the responsibility of the student to have with you at the start of the laboratory, a copy of the week’s laboratory exercise.  The instructor may not provide copies.

·              Make sure that you have your data and copies of all necessary data or graphs to complete the labs before you leave the lab.  Not having the data or graphs is no excuse for not having the lab completed on time. 

·              Further it will be expected that you will have your calculator, textbook if needed, and a copy of the lab with you at every laboratory exercise. 

·              Physics 111 Pre-lab exercises are due at the beginning of the laboratory period. Please print out and bring your answers to the prelab exercises and any graphs you made to class with you. 

·              Laboratory sections will be capped at 18. 

Course Grade: 

Your laboratory grade will be determined based on a professional judgment of your work bas noted below.

·             Pre-Laboratory Exercises: 14%- The pre-lab is due at the beginning of the laboratory class. Late pre-labs will not be accepted.

·             Post-Laboratory Exercises: 70% - The post-lab due date will be announced in the laboratory class as well as on the notes page of the website and announced in class.

·             Pre-Laboratory Quizzes: 14% - The pre-lab quizzes will open up 24 hours before each lab section on Nexus and will close at the start of each lab section. The quizzes will be timed, have a time limit of 15 minutes and consist of several multiple choice questions. You may do the quiz at any point in the 24 hours before lab but, once you open the quiz you must complete it. No late pre-lab quizzes are accepted and you may not consult with anyone or use outside sources to complete the quiz.

·             Participation: 2% - You must actively participate in the completion of the lab. You cannot sit idly by and let your lab partner(s) do all of the setup and data collection.

·             The writing assignments for the lab cannot be emailed to me.  Pleases hand them in to me in person, slide them under my office door (ISEC119), or leave them in my mailbox in the physics department office (ISEC 111).

·             Writing assignments are on the dates as noted in both lab and regular class as well as on the notes page of the website. Late writing assignments will be accepted with a penalty of 10% per day.  This includes weekends.

Honor Code: 

Union College recognizes the need to create an environment of mutual trust as part of its educational mission. Responsible participation in an academic community requires respect for and acknowledgement of the thoughts and work of others, whether expressed in the present or in some distant time and place. Matriculation at the College is taken to signify implicit agreement with the Academic Honor Code, available at honorcode.union.edu. It is each student's responsibility to ensure that submitted work is his or her own and does not involve any form of academic misconduct. Students are expected to ask their course instructors for clarification regarding, but not limited to, collaboration, citations, and plagiarism. Ignorance is not an excuse for breaching academic integrity.

For Physics 111 laboratory, any written work, derivations not done in the lecture or laboratory portion of the class, calculations, computer generated code, interpretations of data/graphs must be your own work and a reflection of your understanding of the material. Data and any graphs made, by using the data taken with your lab partner during the laboratory period, may be created with your lab partner only. Please cite anyone else if you take their data to make or interpret any graphs.

Students are also required to affix the full Honor Code Affirmation, or the following shortened version, on each item of coursework submitted for grading: ``I affirm that I have carried out my academic endeavors with full academic honesty.'' [Signed, Jane Doe]

Recitation: 

Brief outline of the theory and techniques necessary for successful completion of the lab will be given promptly at the start of the lab.  It is the responsibility of the student to be ready (know the background theory, have read the laboratory ahead of time and worked out any pre-lab materials) when the laboratory class starts.  Occasionally the start of the lab class will be used as a short lecture class.  In other words, I may use the beginning of the lab class as a time to lecture on the theory behind a topic pertaining to class, but not covered in detail in class.

Additional Comments:

• All numbers in Physics need to have units attached.
• All graphs should have a descriptive title or should be captioned, and must have the axes labeled with appropriate units.
• If not imbedded in the report, all graphs and tables need to be referred to by figure number in the body of any written text, and attached them at the end of the report.
• If you put your graphs/tables at the end of the report, please make sure they are on a single page and do not span two or more pages.
• Grammar and spelling count.
• Assume that the reader of your report has neither a lab handout nor knows anything about the topic you performed.
• DO NOT include subjective statements about your feelings or thoughts in the lab report.  For example, don’t write “This lab was sort of hard for me” or “I learned a lot in this lab” or “our results were pretty good”.
• DO NOT use the term “human error”. It is a vague “catch-all” which does’t convey any useful information.  When you discuss errors and uncertainties, try to be as specific as possible. Vague expressions like “pretty good” and “close enough” are to be avoided.  If you can compare your result with an expected or accepted value, note whether the expected value falls within the experimental range predicted.  If it doesn't, try to track down where the problem lies and describe your findings in the discussion.  NEVER attribute lack of agreement to calculation error!
• Lab reports need to be written in a clear, logical, succinct manner and contain sufficient detail so that the reader understands what you have done.
• Lab topics, or variations of lab topics, may be tested on in-class exams or quizzes.
• To get the highest grade possible, you need to demonstrate a clear mastery of the topic at hand.  It is not simply enough just to report on only what the lab handout asks.  You need to suggest further experiments that could be done.  Perform additional calculations/extensions of the experiment that could be reasonably expected.
• Since the report is a record of what you did, it should be in the past tense.
• Please do not wait until the night before the lab is due to start writing it.
• Come and see me often for help.
• The pre- and post-lab exercises cannot be sumbitted electronically.  Please print them out and bring them to class.
• Prelab exercises are due at the beginning of the laboratory period. Please print the answers/graphs to the prelab before coming to lab, or email yourself a .pdf file and you can print it in lab.

Lab Schedule

Week 1             1/9/25            No Lab

Week 2            1/16/25           Electric Force

Week 3            1/23/25           RC Circuits

Week 4            1/30/25           Electric Circuits

Week 5              2/6/25           No Lab

Week 6             2/13/25          Magnetic Field of the Earth & Forces on an Electron Beam

Week 7             2/20/25          No Lab

Week 8             2/27/25          Geometric Optics

Week 9             3/6/25            Photoelectric Effect

Week 10           3/13/25          Radioactive Decay of Barium