physic 2

Format for lab reports

The laboratory reports have to be written in accordance with the following format.

1. TITLE PAGE: this should include the title, the number and the date of the experiment, your name as well as the names of your lab partners.

2. INTRODUCTION & PURPOSE OF EXPERIMENT: explain, what is to be measured and investigated in the experiment (i.e., what physical law are you trying to verify, or what physical quantity you are trying to determine experimentally, etc…). Write a short paragraph of theory and equations used.

3. DIAGRAM: a simple, neat diagram of your experimental setup.

4. DATA: attach all appropriate data such as completed data tables from the lab manual.

5. CALCULATIONS: show all calculations or at least a sample calculation. You must include units with your answers whenever there are units associated with the quantity you are calculating. Otherwise the quantity is meaningless.

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES: always report your answers to the correct number of significant figures.

6. CONCLUSIONS: state what you conclude from your experimental measurements. (Do your results support a particular law? Does your experiment value for a physical quantity agree with the theoretically predicted value?etc..)

7. DISCUSSION OF ERRORS: this is a very important part of the lab report. List as many relevant sources of errors which may affect your results. Indicate whether they are human, systematic or random errors. State how these errors affect your experimental values (i.e. would they tend to make your values too large or too small?)

8. ANSWER ALL ASSIGNED QUESTIONS (body and the end-of-lab questions) and submit them with your lab report.

Organization and neatness count.

Sloppy, disorganized lab reports which are difficult to follow or understand will receive a poor grade.

Lab reports have to be typed.

They are due a week after the lab after lab is completed.