Welcome to Physics Lab 222/232, Spring 2003!

Date: 13 Jan 2003
Time: Lab Section I 7:30-10:20 Tues in Armerding 5
Instructor: Rob Sheldon
Office Hours: TBA, Armerding 14
Phone: 7116
email: Robert.B.Sheldon@wheaton.edu

Course Description: Physics Lab 222/232 is the second semester physics lab concentrating on electricity, magnetism, sound, and optics. The first semester lab covered physics discoveries from the medieval through the 18th century, in this second course we cover the discoveries of the 19th century. (The 20th century physics is covered in PHY335 Modern Physics Lab.) These labs parallel the work of people like Michael Faraday, an ardent Christian who made his discoveries despite strong opposition. When asked by a member of Parliament "What is this electricity good for?" He is said to have replied, "I don't know sir, but one day you will tax it."

New Lab Style: Computers are being used more and more in all the sciences, not just as tools for taking the data, but for analyzing the data, presenting the data, and publishing the data. Therefore this semester we are trying out a new approach: a completely computerized lab, from start to finish. This is somewhat experimental, so we reserve the right to "fine tune" the procedure as we go along. There are two parts to the lab: the preliminary questions that each individual will submit on the WWW before the lab begins; and the final report, which will be composed on a word processor or template and submitted before the end of the class period. Because there is only one computer per lab table, only one lab will be submitted for each table, with all lab partners names on the lab. However, we do expect full participation of all lab partners in the creation of the document. Finally, please, please clean up your lab stations after you are done, including the computer desktop and files.

Prelabs/Preliminary Questions: We are trying out a new tool that tries to use the WWW as a fast-response feedback loop. Before each lab class, the Prelabs will be posted on the WWW (it shows up as a red, underlined PreLab 0 in the syllabus below), which must be completed before the Lab section that it is assigned.

Lab Report Style: The final grade will be derived from Tentative LAB Schedule:
WK DATE LAB TOPIC PRELAB TEMPLATES
1 M Jan 13 A Charge, Static Electricity PreLab 01 LabA.doc
2 M Jan 20 B Potential PreLab 02 LabB.mac
3 M Jan 27 C Current in DC Circuits PreLab 03
4 M Feb 3 ***No Labs***
5 M Feb 10 25 Ohm's Law PreLab 04 template
6 M Feb 17 26 Series and Parallel Circuits PreLab 05
7 M Feb 24 27 Capacitors PreLab 06
8 M Mar 3 28+29 The Magnetic Field PreLab 07
9 M Mar 10 ***Spring Break***
10 M Mar 17 34 Electronic Thermometer PreLab 08
11 M Mar 24 21 Sound Waves and Beats PreLab 09
12 M Mar 31 22+23 Tones and Math of Music PreLab 10
13 M Apr 7 D Geometric Optics PreLab 11
14 M Apr 14 E Telescopes and Microscopes PreLab 12
15 M Apr 21 F Wave Optics PreLab 13
16 M Apr 28 G Radioactive Decay PreLab 14

Resources:
Reply to Robert.B.Sheldon@wheaton*.edu
(due to spamming, please delete the asterisk)