PH255 Lab Manual

Here is the PH255 lab manual [49Mb PDF], with procedures for all experiments, the syllabus, and plenty of other useful information. You don't need to print anything out before class, I will have the lab procedures printed for you when you arrive. Please read the syllabus, course information, safety rules, and other introductory material as soon as possible.

PH255: final labs schedule

For the final 4 weeks, you'll be performing two different two-week-long experiments. These experiments are less guided than the single week experiments you have been doing so far; you'll be given a basic task and some background information, and it is up to you to figure out and complete the experiment (though not without help!).

Here's the schedule:

PH255: heavy updates to the lab manual

Primarily, the procedures for the resistivity/noise (called "rho-mu" in the schedule) and fine structure in atomic spectra now exist. A few other clean-ups as well.

Additionally, for the resistivity/noise lab you will find useful papers and sample code in the templates directory.

PH255: lab procedures

Just a reminder, bring the lab procedures you used last time with you to lab today. For the first few weeks, you'll pass the write-ups from group to group, marking them up each time you find errors/improvements/etc. After a couple of weeks, I'll collect them all and fold the changes back in to the master copies. Continuous quality improvement.

Along those lines, don't forget to use the instrument log books (beside each apparatus) to note any details that might not be in the writeup, the status of the equipment, and date and operations you performed on the apparatus. These logbooks will serve as guides to the next group to use the apparatus, as well as crucial information for troubleshooting should anything go wrong. They are meant to be a 'living record' of how and when the equipment has been used.

Also, don't forget your lab notebooks ...

PH255: lab manual

It turns out that I had set some permissions incorrectly, and the password protection for the lab manual was not working correctly for a while yesterday.

Rather than messing around with linux permissions and .htxxx files (it is not 1990 anymore), I've just password-protected the PDF for the lab manual itself. All of the links at right are now unrestricted, but when you download the lab manual, you'll need a password to open it.

Same password I gave you yesterday in class ...

PH255: Lab safety

Something you might want to peruse: a lab safety/etiquette orientation talk I've given a few times at the MINT center here on campus. Most (but not all) of the things apply to PH255. I should have a PH255-specific version by next week's class ...

PH255: Lab manual / error analysis

The PH255 lab manual is a work in progress, but I will be keeping the current version online here. The lab manual includes the course syllabus and schedule.

You will need a password to access the PH255 lab manual (which I will give you in class today). It is annoying, but necessary for me to restrict access to class members due to my (temporary) use of copyrighted material.

You might also find the lab report templates useful, there will be more of these in the next week.

Also, an interesting introduction to error analysis, courtesy a UA Physics alum. His site is highly recommended, a lot of good physics discussions to be found.

Finally, some resources you might find useful. Not all of them will work at UA (we don't have subscriptions), but enough do that it is worth checking out. You may also want to have a look at the rest of the MIT 8.13-14 course content, there are some good laboratory procedures, explanations, and related documents. We'll be doing some of the same experiments in PH255.