PHYS 310 - Experimental Physics

Course Information

Announcements:

  • Welcome to Phys 310. We start Tuesday Jan. 21, 1 pm, Olin 264. Please bring your laptop (if you do not have a laptop, let us know -- we have department laptops)
  • Physics seminars will be posted here - please attend 4 STEM seminars this semester! (Seminars not posted here are still okay.)

Homework: Assignments & Solutions

Lecture Materials

  • Class #1 (1/21) Intro to Course and Jupyter
  • Class #2 (1/28) - Data Analysis I. Distributions & Simulated experiments:

    Experiments

    Resources

    Python Jupyter Notebooks

    • File I/0: html, ipynb, test1.dat, test2.csv
    • Tools for Statistics: html, ipynb; Random Numbers, Tools for Distributions, Histograms
    • Curve Fitting:
      • Example of nonlinear least squares fitting using curve_fit() from the optimize sub-module of scipy (works for fitting of linear models too) html, ipynb, sample2.dat;
      • Example of linear least squares fitting using curve_fit() from the optimize sub-module of scipy html, ipynb
    • Other examples (not necessarily for PHYS 310)
      • Overview of python use for experimental physics applications: external website
      • Linear Curve Fitting using np.linalg.lstsq (based on Jack Gallimore's mlr.py): html, ipynb, sample.dat
      • Vpython: html, ipynb
      • Simple numerical integration (Euler, as in PHYS 211, 212, 221): html, ipynb
      • Numerical evaluation of integrals using quad() from the integrate submodule of scipy: html, ipynb
      • Numerical solution of ODEs using odeint() from the integrate sub-module of scipy: html, ipynb
      • Root finding: html, ipynb
      • Chaos: Driven damped pendulum (PHYS 331): html, ipynb
      • FFTs: html, ipynb
      • Numerical differentiation (including divergence, gradient, curl, etc.): html, ipynb
      • Intro to Sympy (symbolic computation) --- variables, integration, differentiation: html, ipynb
      • Symbolic solution of differential equations using sympy: html, ipynb
      • More symbolic computation examples: nbviewer,
      • Line integrals using sympy (PHYS 333): html, ipynb
      • Astronomy Examples:
        • Downloading image, separating RGB, writing FITS files: html, ipynb
        • Downloading a FITS file: html, ipynb

    Writing of Scientific Papers

    Literature Search Tools

    LaTeX