IU Physics P451, Experiments in Modern Physics, Spring 2003

IU Physics P451, Experiments in Modern Physics, Spring 2003 IU Physics P451, Experiments in Modern Physics, Spring 2003
Course Information

Instructor Rex Tayloe
Swain West 207/IUCF 144
856-4320/855-3057
email:rtayloe@indiana.edu
Office Hours:
Thursdays 10-12 in SW 125,
other times by appointment.

Schedule Thursdays 1:25-5:10pm in SW 125

Prerequisites

P301 and P309 (or equivalent)
Recommended: P453 , taken concurrently

Course Goals
In this class you will learn advanced laboratory techniques and methods while investigating topics in modern physics, i.e. phenomena discovered in the last 100 years that exhibit the quantum-mechanical nature of the universe. You will become acquainted with methods and equipment used in research lab and will practice with these while learning how to solve the problems that arise. You will learn how to analyze the resulting data (with errors!) and how to present your conclusions.
These are not "cookbook" labs. You will be given writeups with an assignment, but the tasks will be similar to a situation that you may encounter with a graduate school or industrial research project. A quantity or effect will be identified and your goal will be to measure or investigate it. Not everything will be spelled out. Your job will be to learn how to effectively and efficiently make a quantifiable statement about nature. This is ultimately the goal of the experimental physicist.
An (incomplete) list of skills that you will learn/practice/master are:

Advanced experimental techniques and equipment,
Problem solving,
Data and error analysis,
How to write an experimental report,
Presentation of results.

Course Requirements
We have approximately a dozen experimental stations in the Modern Physics Lab. Some are ready to immediately make measurements, some require more development. We will start in the first 4-5 weeks by doing 4 experiments (from Group 1) in teams to learn some requisite equipment and methods. Then, for the next 6 weeks we will work on "core" experiments (Group 2). For the last 4 weeks of class, we will do an experiment in more depth, either 1 of the experiments from Group 2 or a new experiment from the Group 3. See the Experiments Page for more info on the experiments available. Here are the details of the course requirements:

Part I of course (first 5 weeks):

In teams of 2, do each of the 4 experiments (1 per week) in group 1.
Enter everything into your logbook, summarize each experiment on a page (or 2) of your logbook.
A few sets of exercises will be handed out for you to work and to submit.

Part II of course (next 6 weeks):

As individuals, do 3 of the experiments from Group 2.
Again, keep a good logbook.
Write a short (few pages) report that briefly summarizes each experiment, with emphasis on the results, and submit.

Part III of course (final 4 weeks + finals week):

As individuals, either: take one of the experiments from Group 2 and investigate an additional aspect or a related measurement -OR- do one of the experiments from Group 3 -OR- develop and perform and new experiment. (You will need to clear your idea with the instructor).
Write a more detailed report (~10 or so pages) on the experiment, analysis, and results.
Present your work on this experiment during our final exam time.

So, during the first 5 weeks you will work with a partner to do four experiments. For the remainder of the semester you will work individually. We will have to organize who is doing what experiment when and compromises will have to be made.
You are required to come to class every Thursday that our class meets. You will be given a key to the lab so that you can work on your own as well.
This lab will become chaotic and not conducive to good science, if we don't all do our part to keep it neat, organized, and functioning. You will be required to:

Always leave an experiment in a state working as good or better than when you started.
Improve at least one experiment in a fairly major fashion, e.g. add a piece of electronics to help with readout, etc.
Keep the lab clean and organized, e.g. tools put away, broken equipment identified, etc.

When we finish the semester, with your help, the lab will be in much better shape than when we started. That is an important skill to learn as well. Part of your lab grade will be based on these items.
You are required to prepare thoroughly for every new experiment that you begin. These experiments are not trivial and take some time to understand and setup. You need to read the experimental writeup and references before coming to class to start the lab. Lack of preparation will be discouraged vigorously.

Safety
There are several potential safety hazards in this laboratory, primarily involving high voltages or radioactive sources. You will be instructed on safe handling procedures and the use of monitoring equipment. A copy of the University Radiation Safety Regulations is also kept in the laboratory for your reference. Please look it over. The most important safety rule is think about what you are doing. Always be conscious of the hazards around you. Think before you act.
The small radioactive sources that we will use should be handled in such a way as to minimize exposure. Your level of exposure will be proportional to the time that you handle the source, and will fall like 1/r² - so don't put them in your pocket! After use, radioactive sources should be returned to the instructor for storage. They are not to leave the lab. Two items are sufficiently `hot' that they can be used only under the direct supervision of the instructor: the Neutron Beam Irradiation Facility, and the Co-57 Mössbauer source. Because radioactive sources may be in use, eating and drinking are not allowed in the lab.
The photomultiplier tube power supplies can generate fairly high voltages (~1000-1500 V). Though these supplies are current limited, they can produce a nasty shock if mis-handled. Just to be safe, never work alone around apparatus using high voltage.
There are also power supplies used for many of the experiments. Be careful working with these. Observe the one-hand rule.

Logbooks
One of the most difficult things to learn, yet one of the most important for future success in physics research, is mastering the "art" of maintaining a proper log book. You should keep a detailed log of all your activities in the lab. Because this is so important, I will require that you adhere to the following "Log Book Rules":

Use a bound notebook (type #43-64x or equivalent) , not loose sheets of paper. Extra material, such as computer printout, photographs, etc., may be pasted or taped into the book.
Make sure your logbook has numbered pages.
Skip the first page or two to use for a Table of Contents.
Start a new page for each experiment, but otherwise do not leave blank pages. If you have work to add from a previous experiment, just indicate this with a brief note ("Continued on page 57").
Date every page, and record the time of the day for each important entry.
Always write directly into your log; NEVER work on loose scraps of paper, and then copy things into the book. Even `mistakes' often turn out to be important!
For the same reason, do not use pencil. If you discover that something was wrong, "X" it out so that it is clearly marked as being in error, but is still legible. Never use White-out, paste over, or (worst of all) remove pages!

As far as deciding what should be entered into your log book, this is largely a matter of personal taste. A few general guidelines might be:

When you start a measurement, state briefly what its goal is -- just a few key phrases to remind yourself exactly what you will be trying to do.
As you go along, jot down enough information to indicate what you are doing at that moment. Remember to note the times.
Provide diagrams (sketches, electronic schematics) of the apparatus, with complete information on settings of controls and other relevant instrumental data. As a rule of thumb, these should be sufficiently detailed that you (or someone else) would have no trouble reproducing your experimental setup.
All measurements should be recorded immediately and directly. Any necessary arithmetic (to convert your numbers to other units, to average two numbers, etc.) should be done in a second step, and also recorded. Remember to record the units for dimensioned quantities, and always estimate the uncertainties in any measured quantity.
Any time your measurements result in a list of numbers (e.g., determining how a quantity y depends on the setting of x), you should immediately convert this information into a graph. This will not only often provide some `intuition' about their correlation, but will usually allow you to spot quickly any departure from a smooth dependence, which might indicate a problem with the equipment or an error in that single measurement.
As soon as you finish collecting the data, present some preliminary conclusions: what worked, what didn't, and what else will need to be done to complete the analysis.

Reports As mentioned above, you will be writing up the methods and results of your experiments in reports. You will hand in three short (few pages) reports and one longer (~10 pages) report near the end of the class.
The shorter reports should concentrate on the results. Think of them as "memos" to communicate your results to your colleagues. These will be good practice on how to efficiently report on experimental results.
The final longer report will be akin to a paper submitted to a scientific journal.
See this sample report for more details.

Textbooks No textbook is required, however there are many that are useful and will be held on reserve. If you can, obtain a copy of D.W. Preston and E.R. Dietz, The Art of Experimental Physics. Wiley, 1991. Many of the experiments that we will do are explained in more depth in this text and it contains much good reference material. A logbook is required. Obtain a type #43-64x (or equivalent). Here is list of other useful text and reference books .

Computers
We currently have 4 computers for the Modern Physics Lab. Three are used for data acquisition and one for data analysis and miscellaneous. These may all be used for data analysis and plots, however, do not over use them. Try to do an experiment completely before using the computer to make final plots. It is easy to get caught up in learning how to make this or that plot just right, when it could be done by hand, in your logbook, much more quickly and efficiently.
We'll use Visual C++ for data acquisition, Excel, Sigma Plot, and PAW for data analysis (and perhaps a few other tools later). Remember to keep your use of computers to a minimum. An important skill to learn is how to efficiently do experiments - sometimes computers spoil that.

Course Grade Your course grade will be based on your:

Logbook and assigned exercises (30% of your score)
Experimental Reports (30%)
Performance in the lab (30%)
Final presentation (10%)
Your enthusiasm and willingness to work hard factors in all of the items.

Rex Tayloe
Last modified: Tue Jan 14 21:47:53 EST 2003


Instructor	Rex Tayloe Swain West 207/IUCF 144 856-4320/855-3057 email:rtayloe@indiana.edu Office Hours: Thursdays 10-12 in SW 125, other times by appointment.
Schedule	Thursdays 1:25-5:10pm in SW 125
Prerequisites	P301 and P309 (or equivalent) Recommended: P453 , taken concurrently
Course Goals	In this class you will learn advanced laboratory techniques and methods while investigating topics in modern physics, i.e. phenomena discovered in the last 100 years that exhibit the quantum-mechanical nature of the universe. You will become acquainted with methods and equipment used in research lab and will practice with these while learning how to solve the problems that arise. You will learn how to analyze the resulting data (with errors!) and how to present your conclusions. These are not "cookbook" labs. You will be given writeups with an assignment, but the tasks will be similar to a situation that you may encounter with a graduate school or industrial research project. A quantity or effect will be identified and your goal will be to measure or investigate it. Not everything will be spelled out. Your job will be to learn how to effectively and efficiently make a quantifiable statement about nature. This is ultimately the goal of the experimental physicist. An (incomplete) list of skills that you will learn/practice/master are: Advanced experimental techniques and equipment, Problem solving, Data and error analysis, How to write an experimental report, Presentation of results.
Course Requirements	We have approximately a dozen experimental stations in the Modern Physics Lab. Some are ready to immediately make measurements, some require more development. We will start in the first 4-5 weeks by doing 4 experiments (from Group 1) in teams to learn some requisite equipment and methods. Then, for the next 6 weeks we will work on "core" experiments (Group 2). For the last 4 weeks of class, we will do an experiment in more depth, either 1 of the experiments from Group 2 or a new experiment from the Group 3. See the Experiments Page for more info on the experiments available. Here are the details of the course requirements: Part I of course (first 5 weeks): In teams of 2, do each of the 4 experiments (1 per week) in group 1. Enter everything into your logbook, summarize each experiment on a page (or 2) of your logbook. A few sets of exercises will be handed out for you to work and to submit. Part II of course (next 6 weeks): As individuals, do 3 of the experiments from Group 2. Again, keep a good logbook. Write a short (few pages) report that briefly summarizes each experiment, with emphasis on the results, and submit. Part III of course (final 4 weeks + finals week): As individuals, either: take one of the experiments from Group 2 and investigate an additional aspect or a related measurement -OR- do one of the experiments from Group 3 -OR- develop and perform and new experiment. (You will need to clear your idea with the instructor). Write a more detailed report (~10 or so pages) on the experiment, analysis, and results. Present your work on this experiment during our final exam time. So, during the first 5 weeks you will work with a partner to do four experiments. For the remainder of the semester you will work individually. We will have to organize who is doing what experiment when and compromises will have to be made. You are required to come to class every Thursday that our class meets. You will be given a key to the lab so that you can work on your own as well. This lab will become chaotic and not conducive to good science, if we don't all do our part to keep it neat, organized, and functioning. You will be required to: Always leave an experiment in a state working as good or better than when you started. Improve at least one experiment in a fairly major fashion, e.g. add a piece of electronics to help with readout, etc. Keep the lab clean and organized, e.g. tools put away, broken equipment identified, etc. When we finish the semester, with your help, the lab will be in much better shape than when we started. That is an important skill to learn as well. Part of your lab grade will be based on these items. You are required to prepare thoroughly for every new experiment that you begin. These experiments are not trivial and take some time to understand and setup. You need to read the experimental writeup and references before coming to class to start the lab. Lack of preparation will be discouraged vigorously.
Safety	There are several potential safety hazards in this laboratory, primarily involving high voltages or radioactive sources. You will be instructed on safe handling procedures and the use of monitoring equipment. A copy of the University Radiation Safety Regulations is also kept in the laboratory for your reference. Please look it over. The most important safety rule is think about what you are doing. Always be conscious of the hazards around you. Think before you act. The small radioactive sources that we will use should be handled in such a way as to minimize exposure. Your level of exposure will be proportional to the time that you handle the source, and will fall like 1/r² - so don't put them in your pocket! After use, radioactive sources should be returned to the instructor for storage. They are not to leave the lab. Two items are sufficiently `hot' that they can be used only under the direct supervision of the instructor: the Neutron Beam Irradiation Facility, and the Co-57 Mössbauer source. Because radioactive sources may be in use, eating and drinking are not allowed in the lab. The photomultiplier tube power supplies can generate fairly high voltages (~1000-1500 V). Though these supplies are current limited, they can produce a nasty shock if mis-handled. Just to be safe, never work alone around apparatus using high voltage. There are also power supplies used for many of the experiments. Be careful working with these. Observe the one-hand rule.
Logbooks	One of the most difficult things to learn, yet one of the most important for future success in physics research, is mastering the "art" of maintaining a proper log book. You should keep a detailed log of all your activities in the lab. Because this is so important, I will require that you adhere to the following "Log Book Rules": Use a bound notebook (type #43-64x or equivalent) , not loose sheets of paper. Extra material, such as computer printout, photographs, etc., may be pasted or taped into the book. Make sure your logbook has numbered pages. Skip the first page or two to use for a Table of Contents. Start a new page for each experiment, but otherwise do not leave blank pages. If you have work to add from a previous experiment, just indicate this with a brief note ("Continued on page 57"). Date every page, and record the time of the day for each important entry. Always write directly into your log; NEVER work on loose scraps of paper, and then copy things into the book. Even `mistakes' often turn out to be important! For the same reason, do not use pencil. If you discover that something was wrong, "X" it out so that it is clearly marked as being in error, but is still legible. Never use White-out, paste over, or (worst of all) remove pages! As far as deciding what should be entered into your log book, this is largely a matter of personal taste. A few general guidelines might be: When you start a measurement, state briefly what its goal is -- just a few key phrases to remind yourself exactly what you will be trying to do. As you go along, jot down enough information to indicate what you are doing at that moment. Remember to note the times. Provide diagrams (sketches, electronic schematics) of the apparatus, with complete information on settings of controls and other relevant instrumental data. As a rule of thumb, these should be sufficiently detailed that you (or someone else) would have no trouble reproducing your experimental setup. All measurements should be recorded immediately and directly. Any necessary arithmetic (to convert your numbers to other units, to average two numbers, etc.) should be done in a second step, and also recorded. Remember to record the units for dimensioned quantities, and always estimate the uncertainties in any measured quantity. Any time your measurements result in a list of numbers (e.g., determining how a quantity y depends on the setting of x), you should immediately convert this information into a graph. This will not only often provide some `intuition' about their correlation, but will usually allow you to spot quickly any departure from a smooth dependence, which might indicate a problem with the equipment or an error in that single measurement. As soon as you finish collecting the data, present some preliminary conclusions: what worked, what didn't, and what else will need to be done to complete the analysis.
Reports	As mentioned above, you will be writing up the methods and results of your experiments in reports. You will hand in three short (few pages) reports and one longer (~10 pages) report near the end of the class. The shorter reports should concentrate on the results. Think of them as "memos" to communicate your results to your colleagues. These will be good practice on how to efficiently report on experimental results. The final longer report will be akin to a paper submitted to a scientific journal. See this sample report for more details.
Textbooks	No textbook is required, however there are many that are useful and will be held on reserve. If you can, obtain a copy of D.W. Preston and E.R. Dietz, The Art of Experimental Physics. Wiley, 1991. Many of the experiments that we will do are explained in more depth in this text and it contains much good reference material. A logbook is required. Obtain a type #43-64x (or equivalent). Here is list of other useful text and reference books .
Computers	We currently have 4 computers for the Modern Physics Lab. Three are used for data acquisition and one for data analysis and miscellaneous. These may all be used for data analysis and plots, however, do not over use them. Try to do an experiment completely before using the computer to make final plots. It is easy to get caught up in learning how to make this or that plot just right, when it could be done by hand, in your logbook, much more quickly and efficiently. We'll use Visual C++ for data acquisition, Excel, Sigma Plot, and PAW for data analysis (and perhaps a few other tools later). Remember to keep your use of computers to a minimum. An important skill to learn is how to efficiently do experiments - sometimes computers spoil that.
Course Grade	Your course grade will be based on your: Logbook and assigned exercises (30% of your score) Experimental Reports (30%) Performance in the lab (30%) Final presentation (10%) Your enthusiasm and willingness to work hard factors in all of the items.