PHYS 310 - Experimental Physics
Course Information
- Course Syllabus
- Course Calendar (check here for assignment deadlines, submit in your Google Drive folder)
- Schedule of Experiments
- Grading criteria for projects
- Grading criteria for papers
- Lab Notebooks: Expectations for Lab Notebooks (Bucknell)
- Office Hours:
- Ibrahim (Olin 174): Tue: 11:00am - 12:00 noon , Fri: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm and by appointment
- Abby (Olin 164): Wed: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Fri: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm and by appointment
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
- Python, Numpy, Matplotlib, & Jupyter notebook: ipynb,available on Colab, data set sample.dat
- Random numbers and simple graphs of PDFs html, ipynb,
- handout on binomial distribution
- Hughes and Hayes worked example 3.2.2 html, ipynb;
- Coin toss simulation html, ipynb
Experiments
- G: Intro (M. Ligare), Sect5-4 Damped Oscillations [J.R. Taylor, Class. Mechanics]
- Michelson: Guidelines for PHYS 310 students (by T.Solomon), Jenkins & White Ch 13 , Hecht Ch 7 , Hecht Ch 9 , M4 Interferometer Manual (Note: different interferometer)
- NMR: Basic theory of NMR stuff, Getting started manual, Introduction part of manual , Instrument part of manual, Specifications part of manual, Experiments part of manual, Article where the group measures T1 and T2 for some samples.
- Ising: Ising Model & Metropolis Intro (read to get started), Ising Model Jupyter Template, Lecture Notes by Richard Fitzpatrick (UT Austin) about Ising Model (read for additional background and more advanced project ideas).
- X-ray, Part I: General overview and tasks for X-Ray Project I (focusing on x-ray emission and atomic transitions ) Properties of X-rays handout. Intro to X-ray apparatus and getting started. Measuring wavelengths of emission lines for Mo and Cu anodes..
- Radio Telescope: Intro packet (read to get started), Stellarium (free software to plan observations), Data analysis Jupyter template and Test.rad (Example data to use with Jupyter template). Additional info: MIT web page about this project (useful references for a paper!), MIT lab manual for this project (additional background/explanation).
- X-ray, Part II: General overview and tasks for X-Ray Project II (focusing on crystallography) Crystallography reading from Ashcroft and Mermin. Intro to X-ray apparatus and getting started. Debye-Scherrer (Powder) technique. Which planes -- denoted by Miller indices -- are visible for different cubic structures..
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 theoptimize
sub-module ofscipy
(works for fitting of linear models too) html, ipynb, sample2.dat; - Example of linear least squares fitting using
curve_fit()
from theoptimize
sub-module ofscipy
html, ipynb
- Example of nonlinear least squares fitting using
- 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'smlr.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 theintegrate
submodule ofscipy
: html, ipynb - Numerical solution of ODEs using
odeint()
from theintegrate
sub-module ofscipy
: 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:
Writing of Scientific Papers
- The Art of Scientific Report Writing (Oxford)
- Ten Steps to Writing an Effective Abstract
- Preparing a Manuscript for Publication; (Journal of Undergraduate Research In Physics)
Literature Search Tools
- Scientific Papers: Web of Science (accessible from FastX session or Databases next line) and Google Scholar
- BU pages: Library & IT (includes ILL and Journals A-Z), Databases (use to get to Web of Science when off campus; includes social science paper data bases)
- Books: BU Library Catalog (World Cat)
- Physics Sources: APS Journals (PRL,PRE, etc.), IOP Journals, ADS Labs (NASA) search, arXiv.org (preprints)
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.
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.