Spring 2008
1. General information:
Instructor:
Horst D. Wahl:
office KEN 512 (phone: office 644-3509, home 386-2239),
Office hours: Monday and Tuesday
10:00 to 11:00, 512 Keen Bldg. (or anytime you can get a hold of me)
Teaching Assistants:
Sean Barton
: office KEN 610 (phone: 850-570-0974)
Jyotica Batra
: office IMB 418 (phone: 850-645-1334)
Class meeting times:
Text (recommended):
Other Useful Books
Class Website:
The class Website is
http://www.physics.fsu.edu/courses/Spring08/phy3802L/
which has links to relevant
Webpages. The Website can be reached via the
Physics Department homepage
(follow the links
Courses ⇒ Spring 2008 ⇒ PHY3802L), or from my homepage
(http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~wahl
)
This course also uses the FSU Blackboard utility.
To get to the Blackboard pages, go to
https://campus.fsu.edu/webapps/login.
You will be prompted to enter
your ACNS username and password to log in. After having logged in,
you will be given a list of all the courses for which you are registered
and which use Blackboard. The Blackboard site
will be used for submission of lab reports, return of graded reports,
announcements and for student discussion. You also have to sign up for equipment use
in Blackboard.
2. Course Objectives
Students in the Intermediate Laboratory (PHY 3802L) must complete five experiments and write a report about every one of them. Before doing an experiment, you are required to sign up for it with the graduate assistant. This will help in scheduling the experiments if more than one group wishes to do the same experiment.
The experiments in the Intermediate Laboratory have some instructions, but you are strongly encouraged to learn more about the experiments by studying the textbook or by consulting other sources. Normally you will be expected to set up the experiment. The instructor will explain the equipment and any safety precautions of an experiment before you start. This explanation will be given during the regular laboratory hours. You are required to consult the instructor or the graduate assistant before beginning an experiment. The experiment must be completed during the normal class hours.
Do not expect the experiment to work the first time. There will often be a piece of equipment that malfunctions making it necessary to repeat the measurements. Since physics involves solving problems you should try to find out the cause of the malfunction. Sometimes it may be as simple as a blown fuse. Often, a bit of everyday experience and common sense is all you need to solve the problem.
3.2 Reports
Even though you are encouraged to work in small groups (up to three), each report must represent an individual effort. Reports must have all the required ingredients. Reports must be submitted in the form of a computer file, in a standard format (e.g. plain text, MSWord, TeX, pdf, postscript, html). The only accepted method of submitting reports is by dropping into the digital drop box on Blackboard. Paper copies, e-mail, etc. will not be accepted. You must submit your report before you will be permitted to do another experiment, unless permission from the instructor is obtained.
The instructor will go over your reports in detail and explain what was done correctly and things you should have taken into account, and will assign a preliminary grade. You will have the opportunity to correct and resubmit your report by the deadline which will be specified, but note that you cannot gain more than 2 points between first and second (= final) version, so you should not be too sloppy with your first submission.
The first version of
reports have to be submitted by the
deadlines
given below (before 24:00 (midnight) on the date given):
Report # Due date
1 25 Jan.
2 11 Feb.
3 29 Feb.
4 19 Mar.
5 11 Apr.
Note: You have 12 "grace days" (days for submission after
deadline) that you may use in any
way you desire, except that not more than 5 grace days may be applied to
any one experiment and all reports (including all resubmissions) must be
turned in by the last day
of classes (without grace day!).
The first submission of the last lab must happen on the deadline given in the table above,
if you want to profit from the possibility of a resubmission.
Grace days already used may be redeemed by turning reports
in early.
4. Course Grading:
Every student has to hand in five reports about experiments he/she has performed. If fewer than the minimum number of reports is handed in, a grade of F will be assigned to the course. If a report is more than one week late, a grade of "F" will be assigned for the report. This means that you failed the course.
For each report a numerical grade of a maximum of ten points will be assigned. The course grade will be mainly determined by the grades on the reports, but the instructor may consider other factors such as the student's attitude toward laboratory work, care exercised in handling equipment, leaving the work area clean after use, etc. The reports should represent a consistent effort throughout the semester, and the degree of consistency will also influence your final grade.
Total points Letter grade
≥45 A
≥40 B
≥35 C
≥30 D
Plus and minus grades will be assigned near boundaries between letters.
5. ADA statement:
Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should:
(a) register with, and provide documentation to, the Student Disability Resource
Center (SDRC); and
(b) bring me a letter from SDRC indicating
your needed academic accommodations.
Please do this during the first week of class.
For more information on this see the
Resource Center's web site.
6. Academic honor code:
Students are expected to uphold the Academic Honor Code published in The Florida State University
Bulletin and in the Student Handbook. The first paragraph is:
The
Academic Honor System of Florida State University
is based on the premise that each student has the
responsibility