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Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 |
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Although in college you may spend most of your time in class, reading,
or doing problem sets, in fact, Physics is essentially an experimental science.
The goal of Physics is always to reduce often complex phenomena to simple
predictive,
mathematical models, which can be tested against experiments.
Therefore,
carrying out experiments, and assessing and interpreting experimental data
are essential skills for physicists, both experimentalists and theorists.
More than this, most physicsists, including your instructor and TAs,
have chosen careers as experimentalists, so for us working in lab is
sometimes exciting, often fun, and usually rewarding.
The purpose of PHYS 381La is to acquaint students with what
it is like to carry out modern physics research,
and hopefully get you excited about it.
To this end, this fall PHYS 381La is continuing its face-lift, begun last year,
aimed at bringing the 381La labs into the twenty-first century.
In addition to the new modules introduced last year -
an optical tweezers module, a scanning tunnelling microscope module,
and a computer simulations/phase transitions module -
this fall we plan (funding permitting)
to develop a weak-localization of light module, and a Johnson noise module.
Together with these new modules and the rejuventation of stalworts,
such as the NMR and superconducting tunnelling modules,
because these days posters, oral presentations
and web pages are ever more important in diseminating one's results,
we are also implementing new ways of
running 381Lb and new methods of assessment,
so that instead of all modules requiring
a traditional laboratory report,
students will have the opportunity to gain credit by
creating Powerpoint presentations or web pages describing
their measurements, and/or creating new,
improved laboratory write-ups. In addition, there will be the
opportunity for extended research, beyond the content of the
basic modules.
Organizational Meeting: There will be an organizational
meeting on Wednesday, August 31 at
1:30 pm in JWG-667. Partners and when laboratory sessions
will be held will be arranged at this meeting. If you cannot
make this meeting, please contact the instructor.
Available modules: The modules that are currently available or
are currently planned to be available this semester are as follows.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE AS PDF FILES
IN MATERIALS.
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