Course Objectives:
This lab course is suitable for upper level undergraduates students. It provides hands-on experience with experiments in modern physics that are challenging at varying levels of expertise. It is expected that students complete, at least, nine experiments in a semester. Students are encouraged to inquire into the possibility of performing an experiment of their own design, make refinements to the experiments or expand the range of measurements suggested in the handouts.

Goals:
Physicsists need to understand how measurements are made, what the limitations of these measurements are, how to interpret and communicate the results.

Judgement:
Students need to identify the goals of the experiment, and figure out how to achieve the goals in the time available. It is important for students to balance the time spent learning the apparatus and its limitations with time spent taking data.

Experience with scientific apparatus:
This ranges from being able to read instrument scales, to using computerized data acquisition systems, to knowing safety hazards, to effectively using specific pieces of equipment. One goal is that students learn how to design experiments of their own.

Data analysis:
It is important that students graph their data early in the measurements so that mistakes can be identified. Students should make order of magnitude calculations of various effects, and assess if they may contribute to the results. It is good practice to assess the limitations to the accuracy of the results. Sometimes, reducing the error will entail taking data for a longer period of time or making additional measurements. Students will learn how to interpret data and the necessity for error analysis in this process.

Communication skills:
Each student will write formal written reports. Although students make measurements in pairs, the oral and written reports will be individual.

Physical concepts:
Many physics concepts learned in a lecture setting will be used and explored through the experiments.

Experiments:

The experiments that are available to be performed this semester are as follows:


1-   Balmer series of hydrogen.
2-   Determining the specific charge of the electron.
3-   Investigating the anomalous Hall effect in tungsten.
4-   Elementary charge measurement (Millikan Oil Drop Experiment).
5-   Photoelectric effect experiment and Planck constant determination.
7-   Frack Hertz experiment with Ar Atoms.
8-   Laws of radiation.
9-   Electron diffraction.
10- Investigating the attenuation of x-rays as a function of the absorber material and absorber thickness.
 

Faculty of Science, Department of Physics, University of Qom, Qadir Blvd., Qom, I.R. Iran.
Location of Room: Building Shahid Beheshti.
Tel. : +98-25-32103780
E-Mail: physicslabs@qom.ac.ir