SYLLABUS, PHYSICS 276, CLASSICAL PHYSICS LAB, SPRING 2008.

Contact Information:

Course supervisor: Gordon Thomson, thomson@physics, 445-4566, Serin 328W. Office hour: M 11:00-12:00.

Teaching Assistant: Iskander Ziyatdinov, ziyatdin@physics, 445-6888, ARC 221. Office hour: M 5:30-6:30 PM.

Section 1: W 12:00-3:00; Thomson
Section 4: M 6:40-9:30; Ziyatdinov
Section 5: T 6:40-9:30; Ziyatdinov
Section 6: H 6:40-9:30; Ziyatdinov

Where possible, students will work on experiments in pairs. Each student will do ten experiments in the semester. In many cases, the lab reports can be finished and handed in in class time. If not, they will be due one week after the data is collected.
Lab reports will be graded on a 10 point scale. Late lab reports will lose one point per week of lateness.
Each experiment will be set up for a Monday-Thursday period in one week, and only for that time. It will be each student's responsibility to collect his/her data in that time. In case of any problems the student should consult Prof. Thomson before the problem occurs.
At the end of the semester a histogram of all the points earned by each student will be made, and the grade boundaries (A - B+, B+ - B, etc.) will be drawn to determine each student's letter grade.

January 22-24: No Labs
January 28-31: Interference of Sound Waves
February 4-7: Ideal and Non-Ideal Gases
February 11-14: Electrostatics
February 18-21: Electric Potential and Field Maps
February 25-28: Capacitance in an RC Circuit
March 3-6: Electric and Magnetic Forces
March 10-13: No Labs
March 17-20: Spring Break
March 24-27: Force on a Current in a Magnetic Field
March 31 - April 3: The Integral Form of Ampere's Law
April 7-10: Geometrical Optics
April 14-17: Interference and Diffraction of Light Waves
April 21-24: No Labs
April 28 - May 1: No Labs
May 5: No Labs