physics lab report

Thermal Expansion Lab Project

The data listed in Table 1 below shows the results of a set of experiments performed on a very remarkable material1. A one-meter length bar of this material is heated to different temperatures and the resultant length at that temperature was measured. Your project is to analyze and discuss this material, and present your findings in a journal-quality writeup.

First, you should identify the material. Determine the coefficient of linear expansion (graphs are always nice!), and use that to figure out what the material is - pay extra close attention to the graph! Once you know what the material is, research it a bit - why is it so remarkable? How might the coefficient of expansion have been measured, in the actual experiment? Hopefully, you’ll notice something interesting about the coefficient of expansion - what is the explanation people have for this effect?

The point of this project isn’t to determine the coefficient (that’s too easy!) - but rather to get you used to doing a little research on something, and learning to write it up in a professional way. You’ll be graded on the effort that you put into the writeup, and the quality of the writeup, itself (I assume that you actually get the correct coefficient and material!). Some of the things that I am looking for:

• Did you follow the correct format for the formal lab write up? Are all the group members listed (alphabetically)? Did you write in complete sentences, with good grammar? Did you write things in paragraphs, instead of making lists, and so on? In other words, does the write up look professional - would it be something that you would proudly submit for publication in a real journal?

• Did you only write things that you can understand, and write at a level at which any classmate could understand? It’s tempting to include scary-looking equations in your paper because they look impressive - and you can! However, if you’re including these scary equations, be sure that you understand them, and can explain them!

• When including equations and formulae, did you define your variables? Don’t display equations without telling the reader what the variables are! Also, are the important equations numbered? Do the equations look nice on the page (as they would look in a textbook, or when you’re writing them down), or are they messily just stuck there (i.e., do you write 1

2 at2, or 1/2 at∧2 - see how much better one looks than the other?)?

• Did you cite your sources, and list them in the references section? Were you sure to not simply copy and paste stuff from the internet (that’s plagiarism, and gets you kicked out of science!)?

• Did you actually discuss things, instead of just showing a page of calculations? Imagine that you’re giving a lecture on this stuff, and type that up! Look at real papers, and how much writing there is, compared to the amount of math!

1Actually, these are calculated results based on different experiments!

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This list of stuff isn’t just for this write-up, of course - it applies to all the labs that we’re performing, as well as to your research paper! The whole point of all this is to learn to write technical documents, which is much more important to your future careers than any particular lab that we’re going to do!

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Table 1: Length of Material at Various Temperatures

Temperature in Kelvins Length in meters

90 1 95 0.99998125 100 0.9999625 105 0.99994375 110 0.999925 115 0.99990625 120 0.9998875 125 0.99986875 130 0.99985 135 0.99983125 140 0.9998125 145 0.99979375 150 0.999775 155 0.99975625 160 0.9997375 165 0.99971875 170 0.9997 175 0.99968125 180 0.9996625 185 0.99964375 190 0.999625 195 0.99960625 200 0.9995875 205 0.99956875 210 0.99955 215 0.99953125 220 0.9995125 225 0.99949375 230 0.999475 235 0.99945625 240 0.9994375 245 0.99941875 250 0.9994 255 0.99938125 260 0.9993625 265 0.99934375 270 0.999325 275 0.99930625 280 0.9992875 285 0.99926875 290 0.99925 295 0.99923125 300 0.9992125

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