LEVEL 1 LAB GUIDE

Introduction

This web-site contains information about all of the lab work you will undertake for the module Discovery Skills in Physics. Some additional information will also be avilable on DUO, including lab allocation lists and slides from lectures.

On the left you will find links to all of the level 1 lab projects. These open up pages with a basic introduction to the lab and a link to the full lab script in PDF format. At the bottom of these pages you will find a list of key skills that you will be familiar with once you have completed the project. A further page is avilable for each key skill, detailing what you need to know and providing links to other resources. You can check off all the first year lab skills on the skills audit page. Advice on keeping a lab book (PDF) and on writing reports is also available.

Hase and Hughes, Measurements and their Uncertainties, is an invaluable guide to understanding and using errors.

If you have questions or comments about the lab or this web-site, please get in touch via the contacts page.

Michaelmas Term

In Michaelmas term, as well as having five lectures and a session on electronic document preparation, you will take part in the following labs:

Skills Lab:

• Circuits One
• Circuits Two
• Projectiles
• Bifilar Suspension
• Electronic Document Preparation

After completing these five lab there will be a number of skills that you should have mastered.

Discovery Lab (one lab to be written up):

• Measuring the Hubble Constant
• RLC
• Conductor or Not?
• The Business Game

Epiphany Term

In Epiphany term, you will complete the following labs, two of which you will write up in long reports:

• Newton's Rings
• Speed of Light
• Galvanometer
• Coulomb's Law
• Hall Effect
• Rotary Dispersion
• Interferometer
• Spectrometer
• X-rays
• Radioactivity
• Electron Charge to Mass Ratio