NMT Labs

Lab Information & Resources

Syllabus - Fall 2009 - Phys122L sect. 3 & 4.

If you need help, check my office or my lab (Workman 323 and 362 respectively). My Schedule.

Click for the Lab Schedule

If you are having trouble with physics, this may help - How to Study Physics

Grading Scale



Average Grade for those who turned in a lab report.
Lab 1 Geometrical Optics - Section 3 (8.9/10)    Section 4 (8.1/10)
Lab 2 Oscilloscopes - Section 3 (9.1/10)    Section 4 (8.7/10)
Lab 3 Electric Fields - Section 3 (8.3/10)    Section 4 (8.1/10)
Lab 4 Capacitors (E.C. incl.) - Section 3 (10.2/10)    Section 4 (8.1/10)

Plots for Lab Reports
Here is an excellent web based XY plot generator. This would be a great tool for those of you who don't like playing around with Excel/Open Office to generate plots. These look better too!
Web Based XY Plot Maker
For this class the axis type should be set to linear in most cases.
Courtesy of Michael Johnston, School of Physics, University of New South Wales

If you use Linux, I highly recommend QTIPlot for making graphs.

Online LaTeX equation editor
Check out Texify for an online LaTeX equation editor, great for inputting equations as images on web pages.

These are a collection of resources for the physics 121/122 labs

Lab Description Link/Video
Geometrical Optics lab Question 7 Reflecting Telescopes
Links Look at the "Optical Design Software" section for some free/low cost ray tracing software.

Optics Simulator in Java.
Oscilloscopes Basic operation and terminology. Tectronix XYZ's of Oscilloscopes (pdf).
Electric Fields Tesla Coil-
15ft tall, 50KW of power
Class Data Data and Analysis Procedure, Click Here
Capacitors, Dielectrics, Induced Charge Basic overview of concepts Hyperphysics - Capacitors
Electrical Circuits Basic overview of concepts Hyperphysics - Circuits
Signal Attenuation and Amplification Using the online plotting tool above, you should get something like this...

Make sure you set the type of graph to exponential fit and set both x and y axis type to "log".
Magnetic Forces What is the strongest magnet known in the universe? GSFC Question of the week
Faraday's Law This one can be confusing, so check out the supplement -> Faraday's Law Supplement
Veleocity of EM Wave Slowing light down with a Bose Einstein Condensate Slow light in cool atoms - Nature
Refraction, Dispersion and Polarization
Interference and Diffraction
Spectral Lines What do we USE spectral lines for? In astronomy, we classify star types, Star Classification
Hubble Redshift Relation Hubble's original paper A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae
Waves and Resonance -
This lab is no longer included, but still neat videos.
Chladni Plates

Vibrational Modes
Ruben's Tube

Wave motion in FIRE!


Electric Field Mapping
Wednesday 2pm Results

Parallel Plate E Field (V/m) Coaxial Cable E Field (V/m) Line Charge Above Gound Plane E Field (V/m)
100 140 50
100 152 32
96 160 36
100 120 54
100 156 52
100 164 42


Wed 6:30pm Lab Results

Parallel Plate E Field (V/m) Coaxial Cable E Field (V/m) Line Charge Above Gound Plane E Field (V/m)
96 40 48
96.2 23.3 34
96 39.04 34
96 36 46


To calculate the Standard Deviation (in this case we use what is called the "Sample Standard Deviation")
use the following equation:
Sample Standard Deviation
For a more complete explanation check out MathWorld.

Data Analysis for E Field Lab