PHY 134 Fall 2023
This is the organizational page for the Physics Introductory Labs PHY 134 for Fall 2023.
The scope of the introductory labs is to give an understanding of basic experimental methods applied in physical sciences. The experiments performed during the lab sessions are closely related to the topics covered in the lectures in PHY 127,132 or 142.
| Instructors | Director of UG Laboratory | Teaching Assistants | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. Lefferts | B. Nielsen |
|
Over the semester you will perform ten (10) experiments, one per week, as indicated in the Manuals and Course Schedule section. The lab session lasts 2 hr 20 minutes. Each experiment will come with a manual that you can access from this webpage.
You will perform each lab experiment by yourself, usually with the help of a lab partner.
Your perfomance in the lab session will be evaluated by your teaching assistant. The evaluation is based on a pre-lab quiz and a written lab report that you submit in the week following the lab experiment. Please refer also to Lab Report Guide.
Each lab score will be made up of 15% for the pre-lab quiz and 85% for the written report.
Your final score will be an average from your single lab grades scaled by a factor (to account for TA variation) that will be determined at the end of the semester. Your final grade will be a letter grade ranging from A to F.
Your lab report will be graded as follows:
Grading for each experiment (left click to expand)
- Pre-Lab Quiz (15 pts): Posted to Brightspace. To be submitted before the beginning of the relevant lab.
- Structure (15 pts): Consists of the following sections of your report:
- Introduction: A short overview of the experiment
- Results: Outline what you get (plots, key calculated quantities, etc.).
- Conclusion: Key insights of the experiment and caveats thereof
- Data table (10 pts): A reasonably-formatted copy of the data you took in lab (along with calculated quantities, as relevant).
- Analysis (60 pts): Varies, consists of the following components:
- Graphs (see the PHY133/134 Plotting Tool)
- Calculations, including uncertainty propagation (relevant work shown)
- Discussion: Various other subsections of your report, which will vary from lab to lab
For more details, see the Guide to Lab Reports.
Here is the schedule of labs for the semester. The first lab sessions will take place in the week starting from Tuesday, Septmeber 5.
August 28 - August 31: No lab classes. September 04: Labor Day. No classes.- Lab 0 (September 05 - September 07): Introduction to Labs, Expectations and Error Analysis
- Lab 1 (September 11 - September 14): The Electric Field (Data Sheet)
Monday, September 11 sections (L01,02) do Lab 0 and Lab 1 - Lab 2 (September 18 - September 21 ): The Oscilloscope (Data Sheet)
- Lab 3 (October 02 - October 05): Capacitors (Data Sheet)
October 11 -13: Make-up Lab Days for Labs 1- 3. No lab classes.
- Lab 4 (October 16 - October 19): Ohm's Law (Data Sheet)
- Lab 5 (October 23 - October 26): Magnetic Force (Mag Force Data)
- Lab 6 (October 30 - November 02): e/m of the Electron (e/m Data Sheet)
- Lab 7 (November 06 - November 09): Inductors (Data Sheet) Univ Evening Midterm Week
- Lab 8 (November 13 - November 16): Resonance (Data Sheet)
November 22 - November 24: Thanksgiving Break. No classes.
- Lab 9 (November 27 - November 30): Geometric Optics (Data Sheet)
- Lab 10 (December 04 - December 07): Interference (Data Sheet)
Here are some documents you may find helpful (You can find more information via links on the Reference Documents Page:
Guide to Uncertainty and Error Analysis (Quick Reference)
Guide to Making and Using Plots
Here is a link to the plotting tool we will use to make our graphs in this class:
TA assignments
| Section | When | Where | Teaching Assistant |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHY134 L01 | Mo 2:30pm - 4:50pm | A-130 | Neal Andersen |
| PHY134 L02 | Mo 11:00 - 1:20pm | A-130 | Yan Mong Chan |
| PHY134 L03 | Tu 11:30am - 1:50pm | A-130 | Ruiren Shi |
| PHY134 L04 | Th 4:00pm - 6:20pm | A-130 | Jiangqi Han |
| PHY134 L05 | We 2:30pm - 4:50pm | A-130 | Jiangqi Han |
| PHY134 L06 | Th 8:30am - 10:50am | A-130 | Yan Mong Chan |
You are responsible for keeping track of deadlines for your lab reports. A list of deadlines (and return dates for work) is available here: Due Dates
Be alert to announcements about changes to this schedule from your TA or via Brightspace.
Any lab report submitted after the deadline will not be considered and receive zero points for the lab experiment.
Exceptions for partial credit may be granted by a TA or the course instructor, with suitably documented reasons.
If you need to be absent for a lab experiment you will have to provide written documentation for a significant reason to be absent, e.g., a medical note from your doctor or a written document about jury duty.
With such documentation, you will have the opportunity to make up the lab experiment in the dedicated make-up week. Under such circumstances, please submit a make-up request via the PHY134 Make-Up Request Form
There are three ways to ask questions or report problems:
- To contact your TA, use the e-mail addresses provided at the top of this page. This is the best option for lab-specific questions, such as checking requirements.
- To contact all TAs, use PHY134_lab@stonybrook.edu. This is the best option for general physics questions. If you cannot get in touch with your own TA and have a question on how to do a calculation (or why numbers look weird), this is also a reasonable place to contact.
- For administrative concerns, contact the course instructor, Richard Lefferts, at phy_introlabs@stonybrook.edu or in Office Hours, 2-4pm Wednesday in the Help Room .