PHY 3802L / PHY 4822L general information

instructors:

Assoc. Prof. Irinel Chiorescu (web)
office: 426 Keen
phone: 644-1726 (at NHMFL)
e-mail:

Prof. Horst Wahl
office: 512 Keen
phone: 644-3509
e-mail: wahl@hep.fsu.edu

Class meetings:
Monday and Wednesday 14:30 to 17:30 (2:30 to 5:30pm) in UPL 211 and adjacent rooms. At the beginning of the lab, i.e. from 14:30 to 15:00, we will have a half-hour lecture and general question-and-answer session in UPL 211. Attendance is required. The rest of the lab-time is unstructured -- you are free to do your measurements, do data analysis, write your reports, discuss with your lab partners, talk to your instructor(s),... but you should use the time to actually work on your lab.

Office hours in 426 Keen (tentative schedule): Generally, anytime (face-to-face, phone, email).

Recommended textbook: The Art of Experimental Physics, by Daryl W. Preston and Eric R. Dietz, John Wiley and Sons (1991)

Other books:

Experiments in Modern Physics, by A. C. Melissinos, Academic Press (1966)

Statistics for nuclear and particle physicists, by Louis Lyons, Cambridge University Press (1989)

An Introduction to Error Analysis , by John R. Taylor, Oxford University Press (1982)

Introduction to the Theory of Error, by Yardley Beers, Addison-Wesley (1957)

Experimental Physics -- Modern Methods, by R.A. Dunlap, Oxford University Press (1988)

Building Scientific Apparatus, 3^rd Ed., by J.H. Moore, C.C. Davis, M.A.Coplan, Perseus Books (2003)

Other useful links:

List of useful books (click here to download PDF)

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

NIST Physics lab

NIST Physical Reference Data

NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures

International System of Units (SI)

Fundamental Physical Constants

JCGM (Joint Committee for Guides in Metrology)

ISO -- International Organization for Standardization

Analysis help

General hints
    - About graphing
    - Method of least squares(UCD)
    - Series Expansions (UCD)
    - Differential approximations (UCD)
    - Occam's Razor
    - NIST Reference on Constants, Units and Uncertainty

Uncertainties,...
    - Analysis of Experimental Measurements
    - Errors and uncertainties -- introduction (UCD)
    - Introduction to Error Analysis  (U North Carolina)
    - NIST -- Uncertainty of Measurement Results NIST TN1297 pdf, html
    - Systematic Errors: facts and fictions by Roger Barlow, (2002), LANL server hep-ex/0207026

Equipment and Instrument documentation: check this weblink