Physics 156: Modern Physics Laboratory
Instructor: Sean Ling (3-2582, email: xsling@brown.edu)
Course Information
Physics is an experimental science – all beautiful theories have to be put
through precise experimental tests before they are accepted. The purpose of
PH156 is to give you hands-on experience with some of the experimental
techniques of modern physics and, in the process, to deepen your understanding
of the relations between experiment and theory.
Required Text
Lecture: Sean Ling (3-2582)
TAs: Liang Wu, Thomas Grimsley
You will do experiments on
phenomena whose discoveries led to major advances in physics, some within last
few decades. The equipment you have to do these experiments is of much better
quality than the equipment used by those who originally did these experiments.
For many of the experiments, you would have won a Nobel Prize if you had been
the first to do it.
In measuring physical phenomena, you will encounter both random and systematic
effects in your data. These effects are present in any experiment. Learning to
identify, control and minimize these effects is an essential part of doing
experiments successfully.
You should work in pairs. Both partners should participate as equally as
possible in using the equipment and obtaining and analyzing the data. The
teaching staff are eager to help you make things work properly and to answer
questions. Call on them when you get stuck, but do not expect them to do the
experiment for you. You are required to attend each of your assigned lab
session for the full period. Any exceptions must be negotiated in advance with
the instructor.
Times and Locations:
Lectures:
Mondays 7:00 - 8:30 pm BH-751 (?)
Laboratory Sessions: 3 hours, twice a week
Course Components and Grading:
The course includes 6 experiments for each group, lectures on the physics
background of the different experiments given by the instructor, verbal
quizzes, a written report on each experiment.
The grading will depend on the performance in the laboratory, the lab notebook,
the written reports, the verbal quizzes and the attendance.
Notebook:
One objective of the course is to instill habits of record keeping that will
serve you well in future research. You must obtain a lab notebook from the
Bookstore. There is only one type of approved notebook for this course. A
notebook is not a polished written manuscript; it is more like a diary. Someone
reading your notebook should be able to recreate every action you took in the
lab and reproduce your results. You should date every entry and record
procedures, events, data, calculations and results. Although you work in pairs
and are urged to collaborate in all aspects of carrying out the experiments and
analysis, each student must keep a complete, dated record of each experiment
and its analysis. Make rough plots of the data in your notebook. You may tape
in other material such as computer generated plots.
Teams: