Laboratory Procedures

The following guidelines are established to assure that the experiments run smoothly.

You are expected to read the relevant experiment in this manual prior to coming to the laboratory. You should also prepare yourself by reviewing the material covered in class and by thinking about the objectives of each part of the experiment. Some experiments require you to do some preliminary work, such as deriving expressions that you will need or plotting some graphs, before coming to the laboratory. Such preliminary work is essential for the experiments to be educational. Preliminary work is highlighted with bold type in this manual. Other than this preparation, the work required for each experiment is limited to the duration of the laboratory hours. You will perform the experiment and write a report as you go along. The reports will be handed in to the laboratory assistant at the end of the laboratory session.

Each laboratory group consists of two students. Two groups can perform experiments at the same time. A laboratory session is limited to a maximum of three hours. However, some experiments may take less time; you may leave as soon as you finish the experiment and hand in your report.

Each student in a laboratory group will write a separate report. In your report, you should write about everything that you think is relevant to the experiment. The following are some guidelines for the preparation of laboratory reports:

• Show the derivation of all expressions used in the experiment (but not given in the book). These derivations should be done before coming to the laboratory.
• For each part, clearly indicate what you have done. Give a sketch of the experimental setup. Explain the measurements taken. Tabulate all raw and processed data clearly.
• Write down all your observations, results, and conclusions. Answer all the questions that are posed in this manual.
• Be clear and organized in the presentation of your work. Use graphical tools where necessary.

You are encouraged to write your report as you go along rather than after finishing the experimental work. Think of the report a your lab notebook that you are writing for yourself and your supervisor. You may need to bring graph paper, a calculator, and your textbook to the laboratory. There is a computer and a printer in the laboratory that you can use for doing quick calculations and generating graphs.

Before you leave the laboratory, make sure that all the equipment that you have used are placed back in their boxes.