This is the organizational page for the Physics Introductory Labs PHY 134 for Spring 2025.

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.

You will perform an experiment, 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)

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 22.

• Lab 0 (January 27 - January 30): Expectations and Error Analysis
• Lab 1 (February 03 - February 06): The Oscilloscope    (Data Sheet)
• Lab 2 (February 10 - February 13): Electric Field Plotting    (Data Sheet)
• Lab 3 (February 17 - February 20): Capacitors    (Data Sheet)    Supplemental Wiring Diagrams
  

• Lab 4 (March 03 - March 06): Ohm's Law    (Data Sheet)
• Lab 5 (March 10 - March 13): Magnetic Force     (Mag Force Data) Sections L01,03,04,06,07,09,10,12,13,15,17,18,19
  e/m of the Electron (e/m Data) Sections L02,05,08,11,14,16,20

• Lab 6 (March 24 - March 27): e/m of the Electron (e/m Data) Sections L01,03,04,06,07,09,10,12,13,15,17,18,19
  Magnetic Force     (Mag Force Data) Sections L02,05,08,11,14,16,20

• Lab 7 (April 07 - April 10): Inductors    (Data Sheet)
• Lab 8 (April 14 - April 17): Resonance    (Data Sheet) (Resonance Plotting Tool)
• Lab 9 (April 21 - April 24): Optics    (Data Sheet)
• Lab 10 (Apr 28 - May 01): Interference    (Data Sheet)

(May 05 - May 08): Make-up Lab Week for Labs 7 - 10. No lab classes.

Folder of All Data Sheets

Here are some documents you may find helpful (You can find more information via links on the Reference Documents Page:

Guide to Lab Reports

Guide to Uncertainty and Error Analysis (Quick Reference)

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:

PHY133/134 Plotting Tool

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 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, [times TBD]in the Help Room .