TO DO for PHYS 399

PHYS 399: Experimental Physics

Instructor: Gabe Spalding

Class Moodle
Class discussion page: Piazza

Prepare For Each Meeting:

Quickly refer to your Introductory and Modern Physics Texts, for each project

as part of your work towards understanding each lab.

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week of 3-May Pre-writing & iteration "Linear Systems" in the context of Measurement Theory e.g., Torsional Oscillators w/ Magnetic Damping and Electrical Analogs	Before the first day: Download (and check out) required resources	Before the first day: Download (and check out) required resources	Before 9 am: Download (and check out) required resources 9 am SHARP - Gather at your assigned post, for a Video Puzzler: writing your way towards understanding Round 1: Linear Systems Describe, and make written observations about, your apparatus, in your lab notebook Click here for a detailed plan for the day. 1:15 pm - DUE: Data plotted in Igor Pro: no fit to any model is needed, but each individual must write their own "sense-making" captions After 4:00 pm - Make a quick review of the first part of John Essick's LabVIEW book, through the first two chapters	9 am SHARP Due: # 1.1-4 Gather at your assigned post, for a quick look at lab notebooks For torsional oscillator plots, enter estimated measurement uncertainties as an Igor Pro wave, referred to as a "weighting" wave. When you do a fit, tell Igor to pay attention to that wave: CURVE FITTING >> DATA OPTIONS >> select WEIGHTING Fit your data to a "free decay" model. In your notebook add commentary, guiding the viewer to what you think should be noticed Igor can switch from linear to log axes. Where do you need more data? Extend your work accordingly, and when in E009, after (quickly) extending your LCR work, further consider a model with NO friction: Butikov # 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 (A virtual lab) 1:00 pm - Torsional partners: write in your lab notebooks physical arguments to support your predictions. Next experimental steps should be proposed After 4:00 pm - Review the next two chapters of Essick, ensuring you can use MathScript Node, and are reminded of element-wise multiplication	Items Due before 9am: Butikov # 1.5-7 and, at the end of that homework set, write down for us how far you've gotten in reviewing Essick during this May term. 9 am SHARP - Let's get this party GOING! Re-consider our apparatus: • Identify key model parameters • Predict how model parameters depend on component values • Ensure systematic studies test your predictions • Write step-by-step Predictions & Protocols • Discuss Independent Tests, Errors, Uncertainties and Significant Figures Aim to turn in plots containing fits of your preliminary data to a "steady state" driven model (with concise "sense-making" captions describing your plots). Copies should be inserted into your lab notebook, along with comments guiding the reader to what you think should be noticed. Also, while in Electronics Lab (after extending your LCR data) there are two more homework problems from the Butikov reading you already did: # 2.1, 2.4 (virtual lab work, refining our model, by adding friction) After 4:00 pm - Review the chapters of John Essick's LabVIEW book on DAQs	Doors open at 10AM You ONLY have access to the experimental systems you've been studying over the weekend, after which time is up, so get all the data your paper needs! (TAs must then set up for Round 2!) Thorough examination of forced oscillations must be included in your FORMAL paper. Over the weekend, quickly get though Butikov Chapter 2, (non-linear friction - a topic we will work to avoid this May). The quickest way may be to make use of the annotated version on my OneNote. Informed by your readings, go back and refine your lab notebooks.	Doors open at 10AM Thorough examination of forced oscillations must be included in your FORMAL paper. We wouldn't want your weekend to drag, so also review the chapters of John Essick's LabVIEW book on Data Files. A common (initial) error is to output your data in integer format, which throws away all precision. Do not do that. Finally, read Preston & Dietz from pp. 7-15, doing the included homework (It's easy!) Items Due before 9am Monday: Preston & Dietz HW, and # 2.1, 2.4 from Butikov Ch 1. Also, make clear in your notebook the title of the latest John Essick chapter you have reviewed during this term (e.g., The chapter on Data Dependency).
10-May Planning & Exploration, and the writing process Error & Fitting Issues Measurement Theory: ...Instrument Response Functions e.g., Convolution with a collector aperture function	Before 9 am - Items Due: Preston & Dietz HW, and # 2.1, 2.4 from Butikov Ch 1. Also, make clear in your notebook the title of the latest John Essick chapter you have reviewed during this term (e.g., The chapter on Data Dependency). NEXT: Along the back of each class, hang up a printout of your most important plots, for peers to provide feedback! Copies should be also imported into your lab notebook, with written discussion included. These plots will form the basis of a brief Quiz on your predictions of how model parameters depend upon the current through the electromagnetic coil Make sure you notebook contains written analysis: do your observations, and associated uncertainties, support a claim of an effect upon the period? Do they support a claim of an effect upon the damping? What were your (step-by-step, worked out) predictions? What protocols (plans) did you suggest? To test your predictions, you now have datasets for free decay (as a function of Icoil) and for the forced (stead state???) response (as a function of Icoil). In each case, make sure that your notebook contains: (A) The Igor Pro file best representing uncertainties in these data sets, as well as clearly documented fits that allow for extraction of model parameters and their associated uncertainties (and that you also send this to us as an email attachment) (B) Fully formatted figures you've selected for inclusion in your formal paper (C) Captions beneath each figure (D) Each individual must have written their own paragraph about each figure intended for the paper. This is your chance to share as much as you have with us; We will give you feedback on whatever you have ready to share. All relevant materials should be in your lab notebook, along with comments. Today, work on problems from Butikov Ch 4: # 1.1, 1.2, 1.6, 1.7, based on Butikov Ch 4 (for which Butikov's Java simulations are useful) Evening: Preston & Dietz HW pp. 16-17; review Essick's chapter on Shift Registers	Before 9 am - Preston & Dietz HW from pp. 16-17 is now due! 9 am SHARP - Gather at your Round 2 post, for a Puzzler: writing your way towards understanding a new apparatus! Soon, Round 1 notebooks sections will be EXAM-mined by instructors - Round 1 notebooks entries will be expected to contain complete work Carefully consider your apparatus. Wherever possible, include data, plots with captions and analysis & subsequent discussion of results and of errors, and sense-making interpretations (including a level of thought and analysis commensurate with what you have displayed in your puzzlers) 1 pm - Gather! Items Due: (A) The Igor Pro file best representing your Round 1 work, sent to us as an e-mail attachment. (B) Printouts of the fully formatted figures you've selected for inclusion in your formal paper. (C) Each individual must have written their own paragraph about each figure intended for the paper. This is your chance to share as much as you have with us; We will give you feedback on whatever you have ready to share. Copies should be inserted into your lab notebook, along with comments. Seek out CROSS-EXAMINATION of your notebooks by your peers, in search of evidence. Do they include assessments of your predictions, in light of your observations? Are there clear arguments presented? Round 2: Instrument Response Functions A lecture on Measurement Theory: "Conjunction Junction, What's your function?" a segue into convolution (Sect. 8.10 of Mary Boas), and the instrument response function 3:45 pm - Puzzler begins (a simple Igor Pro exercise) If you made good contributions to discussions, your reward will be ice cream. Evening: Preston & Dietz HW pp. 18-22; Review Essick on Case and Sequence Structures	9 am - Item Due: Preston & Dietz HW pp. 18-22; e-mail us your latest results from Essick's text. A fitting lecture on fitting, correlation, covariance, & chi-squared If you can automate your data collection, we will be able to go out for ice cream tomorrow. 1 pm - Round 2 Notebook "check-up" (mostly for feedback, this particular notebook check will not weigh heavily in your grade, but your Round 2 notebook will count significantly once you complete the round!) 3:15 pm - Discussion about writing scientific papers in PHYSICS (and how it differs from a lab notebook) Evening: Preston & Dietz HW pp. 23-28 What do you NEED to do, in order have a well-developed lab notebook, by tomorrow and to submit a polished paper on Monday? (In class, YOU will SHARE your lab notebook progress!)	Before 9 am - Due: Preston & Dietz HW from pp. 23-28 9 am - Further discussion of Convolution Focus on your Round 2 Drive Train! Marc Tiritilli has Drive Train suggestions! Seek out PEER REVIEW! DISCUSS your lab notebook progress! (Writing your way towards understanding)	9 am - Avengers Assemble!! Flesh out your Round 2 work! Advice: schedule an appointment with The Writing Center, for NEXT week, for revision of your Round 1 paper. Before that appointment, read your paper aloud and clean up what you can, organizationally. To your appointment, bring hard copies of both your paper and any of the sample papers provided (the CalTech AJP that you'll want to "out-do" in Round 4, or Gabe's AJP that is peripherally related to Round 2, or the guidelines paper linked to our syllabus). 1 pm - Gather! Prof. Kumar will cover a few items from Preston & Dietz At 5:45 pm (sharp!): Gather for our SciFi Movie Night By Monday, have at least one piece of technology from the movie working	Doors open at 10AM Over the weekend, work your way through my OneNote section on "Instrument Response Function" (This includes actually trying my Igor code on the provided test data) Add to your Round 2 Notebook, both based upon your work in lab, and upon your reading (e.g., Piazza Note @47) For broader context, you may wish to review Essick's chapter on Curve Fitting (Note the DIY project at the end of the chapter!) More generally, seek out knowledge of how minimizing Chi-Squared can be used in curve fitting!	Doors open at 10AM Large-area photodiodes are available to try as an alternative to your fiber-optic collectors Download the PhyPhox app onto your phone Finish your Round 1 Paper! (A template is available in Piazza Note @42) At this point, your Round 1 paper's bibliography should at least include Butikov, and an Intro Physics text. (Zotero can nicely manage citations for Overleaf)
17-May Pre-writing, revision, & reading Measurement Theory: Frequency Response & Fourier Methods Methodology: Sampling, Windowing, & Resolution How small a signal can you measure? What sets the Noise Floor? extraneous vs. intrinsic sources In the lingo of computer games, you've arrived at The Boss Level! That simply means that it contains the largest challenges: you have a short amount of time, and you have many more components to piece together, and you need to get them ALL to work, in order to have the chance to sort everything out before time is up. (Be Zen.)	9 am: Round #1 Paper due Round 3: examine/minimize EXTRANEOUS sources of noise. Round 4: examine/minimize INTRINSIC sources of noise. Both rounds aim towards BEATING CAL TECH! All rounds are now in play, and so you must now learn to JUGGLE! (If you ever have children, this will, in retrospect, seem simple.) Storytime: Each group should read (aloud) Ch 2 -3 of Anakin: Apprentice RAIN DELAY Physics Party delayed to Thursday night 2 pm: Focus on Round 2 lab notebooks These should contain complete work (including a level of thought and analysis commensurate with what you have displayed in your puzzlers). Wherever possible, include data, plots with captions and analysis & discussion of results and of errors, and sense-making interpretations. Send us the Igor Pro file best representing your Round 2 work, as an e-mail attachment. After review, expect a Quiz on Curve Fitting and Chi-Squared, providing prompts to help you wrap up Round 2 Evening: Begin carefully working through Essick's chapter on the Fast Fourier Transform, so you can turn in the end-of-chapter materials on Friday	9 am - Search for at least 14 articles in Am. J. Phys. relevant to RLC circuits, and/or other work directly related to your Round 1. Do not read them yet, but find them! (Is it better to search from the AJP site, or to use Web of Science or Scopus?) Import these into Zotero. For just 4 of these: write a sentence on each one, based only on the abstracts! Pick 1 that you might pursue in this class, using the tools at hand. Send us your annotated bibliography 1 pm - Gather for Discussion of Noise Sources Import, into OneNote, the CalTech AJP, for your annotation (Your annotations will be assessed!) Evening: Don't forget to mix in work on Essick's FFT chapter, each night, so you can turn in the end-of-chapter materials on Friday. Spend a bit of time on your Round 1 "Second Vision" paper Ask yourself about various limits of relevance, and any insights gleaned from considering limiting cases. Is it possible to plot "raw" data from different kinds of oscillators on one (scaled) plot? What would that demonstrate?	9 am - Be prepared to WRITE in a new OneNote section: Autocorrelation, which begins with a Music Box Puzzler OneNote page: "What does the PhyPhox say?" ...and the long-awaited return of the Noisy Sine Discuss moving from the time domain (Autocorrelation) to the frequency domain (Fourier Analysis), for Rounds 3 & 4: Extrinsic & Intrinsic Noise Center yourself on finding the gentle pleasures of figuring things out: Let's *Beat Cal Tech!* Annotate these CalTech materials in your OneNote (Your annotations will be assessed!) ...and begin mapping out your lab notebook sections and pages. Write what you can! 1 pm - What are your protocols (plans)? How low a frequency does it seem you need, in order to observe 1/f noise? If you lower the thermal noise level, will that change? Will the observed thermal noise be the same for samples with R = 1 GΩ as for R = 0.02 Ω ? If 1/f noise has something to do with disorder, does that influence your choice of materials? Evening: Don't forget to mix in work on Essick's FFT chapter, each night, so you can turn in the end-of-chapter materials on Friday. Consult the Peer Review Guidelines, and give Peer Review a try! Add references to "the literature" (from your annotated bibliography) to the Introduction of your Round 1 Paper's "Second Vision." Rather than a simple minor revision, note that this is your chance for a second vision of how best to present your work.	9 am - Discussion of intrinsic noise PREDICTIONS Daytime: Eking out data, as best you can. Only data can truly set you free! We also have liquid nitrogen, but we must discuss the potential for accidentally creating a pipe bomb 1 pm - Discussion of PREDICTIONS vs. observations What is due to your sample, and what is not? Round 3: examine/minimize EXTRANEOUS sources of noise. Round 4: examine/minimize INTRINSIC sources of noise. Please share your various tests & comparisons with predictions. Celebrate the outcomes. 7:00 pm - Party to be hosted by student club officers (SPS, SPIE, IEEE, ACM), featuring physics games	9 am - Lecture on the Convolution Theorem & Windowing, etc Round 4 data is now of the essence! Begin with simple tests. If problems are encountered, step back to simpler tests. 1 pm - Two items Due: From Essick's FFT chapter: do end-of-chapter Problem 5 (which uses the DIY from the MathScript Node chapter; also read Problem 4) & do Problem 7 part (c) letting your user-defined option be x=4.0exp(-50t).cos(2pi250t + pi/6), which makes use of element-wise multiplication. Quiz on DSP (i.e., digital signal processing: FFT, aliasing, etc.), based on readings in John Essick's LabVIEW book. Evening: Work on writing in your Round 3/4 notebook	Within your group, talk about whether you are likely to be better off writing your Group Paper on Round 2, Round 3, or Round 4. Work, collaboratively, on building up background material for your Group Paper! When your literature search turns up an article that you believe is a "good fit," worth looking at [e.g., Nyquist, Phys. Rev. 32, 110 (1928)], there is a chance it will be "behind a paywall." Instead of paying, request IWU get it for you, at ILLiad The sooner you request an article, the sooner it will arrive. (It is not instantaneous.) NOTE: Instead of providing the page number, where requested, instead provide the "Digital Object Identifier" (DOI)	The more thought you put into what your Group Paper might look like, the more likely you are to achieve that vision. Work, collaboratively, on storyboarding your Group Paper!
24-May Responding to (and going beyond) reviews of your writing Scouring for literature to leverage your work up to another level	There are four days remaining. What can you accomplish in just four days? (You've already shown that you can do a LOT in that amount of time!!) 7:30 pm: Paper on 1st Lab due Rather than a simple minor revision, this is your chance for a second vision of how best to present your work	9 am - Zoom! 1:00 pm - Zoom! Zoom! Evening: Work on Group Paper, with the goal that group writing should yield group learning	9 am - Zoom! 1:00 pm - Zoom! Zoom! Evening: Share your Overleaf link with us, as you wrap up The Group Paper, while cranking up the volume on One Day More from "Les Mis"	Due: Problems #4 and #6 from the chapter on Fourier transforms in Essick's text All lab notebooks are due before you leave Make sure that we can access your Group Paper (i.e., that the Overleaf link is operational) before leaving	We do not begin any new project already knowing our way With each new round in life, aim to write your way towards understanding Recognize how far you have come, and that, in an earned sense, you now share ownership of a valuable set of tools	Celebrate when you can!	(Zen)