a|Oa|Oa|Oa|O PHYS 310 -- Experimental Physics Bucknell Physics & Astronomy

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.)
  • Thurs Feb 6, 12 pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - Denise Okafor (Penn State)
  • Thurs Feb 20, 12 pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - Jean-Paul Armache (Penn State)
  • Thurs Feb 27, 7pm evening Traditional Reading Room (Bertrand Library): Physics Alumni Panel
  • Thurs Mar 6, 12 pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - our very own Deepak Iyer (Bucknell)
  • Thurs Mar 27, 12 pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - Chris Ticknor (LANL)
  • Thurs Apr 10, 12 pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - Alia Wofford (George Mason University)
  • Thurs Apr 24, 12pm, Olin 268: Physics seminar - Bryce Gadway (Penn State)

Homework: Assignments & Solutions

Lecture Materials

  • Class #1 (1/21) Intro to Course and Jupyter
  • Class #2 (1/28) - Data Analysis I. Distributions & Simulated experiments:
  • Class #3 (2/4) - Data Analysis II.
    • Coin Flips and the Central Limit Theorem: html,
    • Error propagation: ipynb,
  • Class #4 (2/11) - Data Analysis III. Curve Fitting I
  • Class #5 (2/18) - Scientific Papers and Latex
  • Class #6 (2/25) - Figures & Paper Structure
  • Class #7 (3/18) - Literature Search Tools
    • Literature search tools: Web of Science (if off campus, use VPN or Databases link under "Literature Search Tools" below) and Google Scholar and The arXiv* *Check if updated: peer-reviewed and published.
  • Class #8 (3/25) - Data Analysis IV. Fitting Models to Data
    • Fitting and \(\chi^2\) error surfaces; Class worksheet with fit to a Gaussian: ipynb,
    • Example code for surface and contour plots: html, ipynb.
  • Class #9 (4/1) - Data Analysis V. Hypothesis Testing and Goodness of Fit tests
    • Hypothesis testing notebook: ipynb,
  • Class #10 (4/8) Ethics I Case Studies Discussion
  • Class #11 (4/15) Diversity Overview

    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:
        • Overview of python use for experimental physics applications: 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

      • LaTeX: Latex (& Xfig) in PHYS 310 (introduction to latex, including how to use the following files),
        for uploading on overleaf: templateWithBibAll.zip ,
        for latex in linux environment: templateWithBib.tex , myRefs.bib , cubic.pdf , samplefig.eps, and see below
      • Simpler Paper Template (without bibtex):
        NOTE: These files are written for pdflatex.
        Download the files template2019.tex, samplefig.eps, and samplefigB.pdf. After processing these files you should generate output that looks like this: template2019.pdf.
      • Sample file containing many more sophisticated examples of how to typeset a physics paper:
        This file apssamp.tex generates the output displayed here: apssamp.pdf. Comparing these files side-by-side is a good way to learn lots about typesetting papers.
      • APS homepage for RevTeX (including links to documentation)

      • Tutorials (A random sampling of many that you can find online):
        • Getting Started with LaTeX
        • Outline of steps for paper production using PDFLaTeX. (The % signs represent the command line prompt in a unix/Linux terminal session.)
          • Copy template template.tex to a working file, say paper.tex:
            % cp sample.tex paper.tex
          • Edit paper.tex:
            % gedit paper.tex & (or use your editor)
          • Compile the tex file:
            % pdflatex paper.tex
          • Compile the tex file (again):
            % pdflatex paper.tex
          • View the .pdf file:
            % evince paper.pdf & (or use your favorite viewer)
          • You may edit, save, and recompile without closing the evince viewer; it will update the displayed version automatically.
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        • Projected Talks with LaTeX: