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Department of Physics
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Lab skills

How to work efficiently in the lab

Notebook Skills

Taking lab notes is an essential part of experimentation and they are assessed as part of your lab work
Pen and notebook

Constants and SI units

Units of measurement you need to know
Students work with semiconductor devices

Dimensional Analysis

Most physical quantities can be expressed in terms of five basic dimensions

Circuits

Many of the labs you take part in this year will require basic understanding of electrical circuits and their components

 

Lab Equipment

Data Analysis

Being able to extract the useful infromation from a set of data is a vital skill in the labs module.  Here you will find guides and other helpful information.

Data Analysis, Errors and Linearising Data

  • Basic Data Analysis

    In many undergraduate experiments, you will be attempting to measure a value to be compared with the literature.
    Students in a tutorial / small group discussion with their tutor

  • Errors

    When we make a measurement, we can never be sure that it is 100% "correct"
    Male undergraduate student on laptop

  • Linearising Data

    In general it is best for graphs to show a linear relationship

Basic Data Analysis

In many undergraduate experiments, you will be attempting to measure a value to be compared with the literature.
Students in a tutorial / small group discussion with their tutor

Errors

When we make a measurement, we can never be sure that it is 100% "correct"
Male undergraduate student on laptop

Linearising Data

In general it is best for graphs to show a linear relationship
Perform these tasks in MS Excel

Histograms and Distributions

  • Histograms

    Histograms are useful tools for dealing with data that is measured on an interval scale

  • Gaussian Distributions

    If we take repeated measurements of the same value, we will obtain a distribution of measurements

  • Histograms

    The Poisson distribution is a special case of the binomial distribution that it models discrete events

Histograms

Histograms are useful tools for dealing with data that is measured on an interval scale

Gaussian Distributions

If we take repeated measurements of the same value, we will obtain a distribution of measurements

Poisson Distribution

The Poisson distribution is a special case of the binomial distribution that it models discrete events
Report Writing Guidelines