Physics 391 | Experimental Data Analysis Lab
Instructor: Dr. Elsa Johnson
Instructor: Dr. Elsa Johnson
Lecture: Tuesdays 4:00 - 5:20pm in Willamette 318. Labs are in Willamette 17 from 10-12 and 2-4. The first lecture will be in Willamette 17.
Introduction to Error Analysis, 2ed, Taylor (required)
Course grades will be based on five labs (60% of course grade) and five homework assignments (35% of course grade) and 4 pre-labs (5% of grade). There is no final or midterm for this course (yay!). You have a two day grace period starting on the due date to turn in homework. Labs have a one day grace period, however you have the opportunity to redo the lab for up to 80% of the points missed. For example, a lab with a grade of 50% can be redone for a potential 90%. All reworked labs must be turned in by June 8th - monday of finals week. Grades will be kept in blackboard so check often.
Labs are somewhat more programming and data-based than years past. For instance, at least 3 of the labs do not require any experimental set up and provide data for you to analyze.
It is anticipated that you will require at least 4 hours of lab time to do each lab. This DOES NOT include write up and data analysis. Lab time is fairly informal, but please attend your assigned lab section. If you can‘t make a lab section, you are free to use the lab any day except Thursday (Phys290 has the room). However, I highly encourage you to attend during your section because you won‘t have lab assistants to help you in case you are stuck.
You may work with a partner but you must turn in your own data analysis, lab write up and scripting code. Labs are typically due on weeks that homework isn‘t due. Links to labs are provided on the home page as well as the menu item "Labs".
There is at least one formal lab write up for this course (lab 3). Outlines for formal labs will be provided as well as information/answer forms for the remaining labs. You will also need to turn in code and code output. All lab assignments are due by noon on a the Thursday before the next lab is started. The final lab assignment will be due during finals week on or near the date you would have a final exam.
Each lab is worth a significant portion of your grade (12%). They are the raison d‘être for this course. If you skip just one and do absolutely perfect on everything else (this is hard to do) your grade will go down to a B.
All homework is due at the start of lecture on Tuesday. Due dates and assignments are linked under the menu item "Homework" and on the home page. They will be a blend of Taylor problems and programming.
Programming literacy is becoming necessary for all students and graduates - and not just science majors. You will be doing some basic programming using Python. If you already know how to program and not in Python, you may use any language you like provided it’s either MATLAB or we have the means to run it in a terminal. That being said, you should be able to pick up python rather quickly if you know how to program. This course was originally taught using only MATLAB but we are slowly migrating it to Python because Python is more versatile with other packages (see lab 2). It is assumed that most of you don‘t have any programming skills so the first lab is designed to get you acquainted with doing common tasks.
If you wish to install Python on your laptop, try to get any 2.x distribution and not 3.x version. The 3.x version is still not supported, has subtle differences in syntax and bugs. Python is free to install on your laptop, however MATLAB is not free and costs about $100 for the student version. It is free if you use any UO owned computer. There are free alternative such as Octave but it hasn‘t been tested with the lab and could be limited in features and packages. The programming link in the menu bar above will have updated links to tutorials and software.
You may work together on labs as needed and consult one another on homework but you must write up your own lab AND write your own programming code. If you turn in identical homework or labs - even if there is just one small part that is very similar, you will get zero credit for that part. Don‘t do it!
Since there are so few students in this class it becomes apparent as to who attends lab and who doesn‘t. If you rarely show up for lab, your work will be highly suspect if it is in anyway similar to another student‘s work.