Physics   0577,  Modern Physical Measurements

Schedule, Fall Term 2003,  

Instructor:  Julia Thompson, 200E Allen Hall, phone 4-9060, email jth@pitt.edu
TA:            Tong Chen,  email: toc2@pitt.edu

For help with lab equipment and to report problems with equipment, see Jay McDonald

List of Experiments and Approximate Time Scheduled. Note that experiments with previously assigned numbers have numbers attached to their description. Time may be adjusted depending on the class experience and decisions to do a particular piece of a lab more thoroughly

A.  Required electronics experiments and numerical methods; if you have previous experience in these areas you may be able to demonstrate competence without doing the entire experiment in detail (see the instructors if you feel you qualify):

August 26,28: Test instruments
Oscilloscopes, signal generators, frequency counters, digital multimeters, resistors, capacitors. To get our electronics vocabulary started.      Finish during first week; may spill over into following week with expanded studies of delayed pulses. Report due lab period following completion of the experiment. 
 
Sept 2, 4:

Begin numerical methods. (1 week's worth of credit). Essential skills in data analysis, graphing, and curve-fitting. This should be completed, with report handed in, by Oct. 9. It uses MathCad and Mathematica. Practical arrangements for access to these programs will be made.

 Begin electric resonance  (RLC circuits). Resonance ideas run through much of physics, both theoretical and experimental, and RLC components are routinely used for pulse shaping and wave shifting purposes.

Sept. 9,11: Complete RLC circuits.
Sept. 11: Preliminary choice of optional experiments is due (so that we can work at having them ready). Sign up. First come, first served.

Sept. 16,18: Begin Digital Logic. Can't understand computers without it.
Sept. 23: visit from biophysicist Mark Bodner, Pitt undergraduate now at UCLA, in the dept. of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science. Sept. 23,25: Complete Digital Logic.
Sept. 25: Choice of "great" experiment" due. (Sign up. first person to sign up for a given experiment will do that experiment.)

Sept. 30. Oct. 2: Begin LABVIEW computer  training or other computer I/O.  Computers allow you to do sophisticated analyses, but only if they have the data available. One week for a basic introduction; a second week for more in depth work is optional.

Oct. 7,9: Catch Up, Look Ahead. More Labview? Finish Numerical methods? Read about your "great experiment"?

Study your chosen "great experiment". (from other sources: internet, reserve books, your own research, or other as approved by your instructor) one major experiment in the past century. Why was it done? How was it done? What new instrumentation or techniques were required to do it? Was the result immediately accepted or was there controversy? Are there any remaining ambiguities about how credit was finally assigned?

Oct. 14: continue catching up; check out your great experiment presentation with an instructor. Proposal for final project is due.
3-4pm: Great Experiment Presentations

Oct. 16: Begin Optional Experiment 1:

Milikan Oil Drop (Nichelle Madison and Andrej Savol)

Plank's constant (Mike Baker and Tom Flowers)

Transistors (Jon Kauffman)

e/m (Sean Yaw)

Oct. 21-23 finish Optional Experiment 1.

Oct. 28-30 Optional Experiment 2:

Bragg scattering (Nichelle Madison)

Cloud Chamber (Mike Baker)

Photo-resistivity (Tom Flowers)

Milikan Oil Drop (Jon Kauffman)

Superconductivity (Andrej Savol)

Franck-Hertz (Sean Yaw)

Nov. 4-6 Optional Experiment 3:

Solar Cell (Nichelle Madison)

Muon lifetime (Mike Baker)

Franck-Hertz (Tom Flowers)

Cloud Chamber (Jon Kauffman)

e/m (Andrej Savol)

Superconductivity (Sean Yaw)

Nov. 11-13 Optional Experiment 4:

Cloud Chamber (Nichelle Madison)

Muon lifetime (Mike Baker)

Mossbauer (Tom Flowers)

Superconductivity (Jon Kauffman)

Solar Cell (Andrej Savol)

E865 mirrors (Sean Yaw)

Nov. 18-20
Nov. 25
Begin final project:

Photon counting or Muon Lifetime (Nichelle Madison)

E865 mirrors (Mike Baker)

NMR (borrowed from CMU) (Tom Flowers)

Acoustical Cavity (Jon Kauffmanl)

Acoustical Gas Thermometer (Andrej Savol)

Muon Lifetime or chaos (Sean Yaw)

Nov. 27 Thanksgiving

Dec. 2-4
Finish final project.
Dec. 4: paper draft due.

Dec. 9-11 last week of classes, finish up!
Dec. 11 Final paper due; final presentations

The experiments above were chosen from the following:
Short Experiments (1 week):

 7:  Phase shift oscillator

8:  Transistors (consult instructor about dropping some out-of-date optional parts)

Measurement of Planck's constant, through spectroscopy of hydrogen atom.

Measurement of charge/mass of the electron, by bending an electron beam in a magnetic field.

Measurement of some energy levels in materials using the Mossbauer effect.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (the basis for much medical technology). (Not sure if this one will be available; one model is currently in hibernation, and bringing it out may make it more appropriate for a final project; we are negotiating for purchase of a second, simpler and more straightforward model.)

Franck Hertz experiment: one of the most convincing demonstrations that atoms and particles have spin.

Cloud Chamber: demonstrates that particles (or something!!) leave definite trail of cloud droplets: "see" particles.

Superconductivity: one of the amazing discoveries of the last two decades is that superconductivity can take place at liquid nitrogen temperatures. See it happen!

Photoresistivity, and related phenomena. Resistance is not really just a constant. See it depend on incident light and temperature.

Solar Cell: see its output depend on incident light and other characteristics. How to design a collector?

Millikan's Oil Drop Experiment: what is the charge on an electron anyway?

Bragg Diffraction: X-rays have wave lengths and crystals have structure: Look at it through X-ray scattering.

Study of mirrors used in experiment E865 at Brookhaven National Laboratory; measurement of radii of curvature, understand use in Cerenkov counter, why Cerenkov counter was needed in this search for a forbidden lepton family number non-conserving decay.

Any other experiment of interest to you from the regular introductory laboratory exercises (see book available in the lab).

C. Long Experiments, also suitable for the final project: More advanced electronics, and resonance experiments. Some suggestions are below. With the instructor's permission, if feasible, another idea may be substituted. This project is expected to take about 2 weeks in laboratory work.
   
 4:  Operational amplifiers Amplification, integration, differentiation, feedback, all important experimental functions)

9:   Electrical noise. Essential for low signal experimental work.

13: Acoustical cavity modes (application of the important idea of resonance)

14: Acoustical gas thermometer (application of the important idea of resonance)

21: Muon lifetime (elementary particle decay, data acquisition, digital logic, counting statistics, timing)

Photon counting and studies (elementary particle decay, data acquisition, digital logic, counting statistics, timing)

last modified Aug. 25, 2003, Julia A. Thompson.