PHY 133 Spring 2023
This is the organizational page for the Physics Introductory Labs PHY 133 for Spring 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 lecture courses PHY 131 or PHY 125/126.
| Instructors | Director of UG Laboratory | Teaching Assistants | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R. Lefferts | B. Nielsen |
|
You will perform each week an experiment as indicated in the Manuals and Course Schedule section. You have 2 hr 20 min time to perform each experiment. Each experiment will come with a manual that you can access from this webpage.
You are required to perform each lab experiment by yourself, mostly together with a lab partner.
Your perfomance in the lab session will be evaluated by your teaching assistant. The evaluation is based on the score of your pre-lab quiz, taken before the beginning of lab session, your performance during the experiment and a written report that will be submitted 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 (left click the blue bar to expand):
Grading for each experiment (left click to expand)
- Pre-Lab Quiz (15 pts): Posted to Blackboard. 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 Monday, January 23
- Lab 0 (January 23 - January 26): Introduction to Labs, Expectations and Error Analysis
- Lab 1 (January 30 - February 02): Pendulum (Data Sheet)
- Lab 2 (February 06 - February 9): Acceleration (Data Sheet)
- Lab 3 (February 13 - February 16): Projectile Motion (Data Sheet)
- Lab 4 (February 27 - March 02): Atwood Machine(Data Sheet)
- Lab 5 (March 06 - March 9): Conservation of Energy (Data Sheet)
- Lab 6 (March 20 - March 23): Conservation of Momentum (Data Sheet)
- Lab 7 (April 03 - April 06): Angular Momentum (Data Sheet)
- Lab 8 (April 10 - April 13): Simple Harmonic Motion (Data Sheet)
- Lab 9 (April 17 - April 20): Standing Waves (Data Sheet)
Standing Waves Alternate (Data Sheet)
- Lab 10 (Apr 24 - Apr 27): Ideal Gas Law (Data Sheet)
(May 01 - 05): Make-up Lab Week for Labs 7 - 10. No lab classes.
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)
Introduction to Google Sheets Google Sheets Tutorial
Guide to Making and Using Plots
Here is a link to the plotting tool we will use to make our graphs in this class:
| Section | When | Where | Teaching Assistant |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHY133 L01 | Mo 2:40pm-5:00pm | A-117 | Loc Thi Hoang Ngo |
| PHY133 L02 | Mo 2:40pm-5:00pm | A-126 | Xiangyu Huang |
| PHY133 L03 | Mo 6:05pm-8:25pm | A-117 | Gurulakshmi Subramanian |
| PHY133 L04 | Mo 6:05pm-8:25pm | A-126 | Xiangyu Huang |
| PHY133 L05 | Tu 11:30am - 1:50pm | A-117 | Khanak Bhargava | PHY133 L06 | Tu 11:30am - 1:50pm | A-126 | Kyle Lazelle |
| PHY133 L07 | We 2:40pm-5:00pm | A-117 | Loc Thi Hoang Ngo |
| PHY133 L08 | We 2:40pm-5:00pm | A-126 | Mathieu Boisvert |
| PHY133 L09 | We 6:05pm- 8:25pm | A-117 | Kyle Lazelle |
| PHY133 L10 | We 6:05pm- 8:25pm | A-126 | Gurulakshmi Subramanian |
| PHY133 L11 | Th 11:30am - 1:50pm | A-117 | Khanak Bhargava |
| PHY133 L12 | Th 11:30am - 1:50pm | A-126 | Mathieu Boisvert |
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 Blackboard.
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 PHY133 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 PHY133_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, Wed 1-3pm in the Help Room .