PHYS-2021: General Physics II Laboratory
Course Web Page
This web page has been set up for the students at ETSU taking PHYS-2021
General Physics II Laboratory offered by the Department of Physics and
Astronomy. Links have been set up for the students to view and download the
Syllabus, Information and Policies document, Lab Report Format instructions,
and the Lab Experiment instructions.
All of the files listed on this site are in PDF (Portable Document Format).
Should your web browser not be able to display PDF files, one can download
Acrobat Reader to view these files.
Course Overview:
General Physics II Laboratory is the second laboratory course in a
two-semester sequence that covers the following main sections of
classical physics: (1) electricity, including electric fields,
forces, Coulomb's law, capacitance, current, resistance, and
electrical circuits; (2) magnetism, including magnetic fields,
magnetic forces, and inductance; (3) wave mechanics, which covers
vibrating strings; and (4) optics, which covers
reflection, refraction, and optical instruments. The "Electricity"
topics are covered in experiments with the Experiment # prefix of
ELEC in the table below. The "Magnetism" topics are covered in
experiments with the MAGN prefix, "Wave Mechanics" with
WAVE, and "Optics" with the OPTC prefix. The Lab
Schedule below lists the labs that will be performed this semester
with links to the Lab Instructions for that week's specific lab experiment.
The main goal of this course is to demonstrate the techniques used to carry
out experimental physics. Besides learning measurement techniques, the
student will be trained to be very detailed in raw data collection and
analysis. You will need to solve equations (just as you do in the lecture
course) and come up with numerical solutions to these equation. As
such, you are expected to have (and know how to use) a good
scientific calculator. The Department does not have calculators
to loan -- the sharing of calculators during lab period is
frowned upon. The book store carries such calculators.
The laboratory experiments performed in this course complement the material
covered in the General Physics II lecture course (PHYS-2020). Note
however that the lecture course and the laboratory course are graded
independently of each other -- the grade earned in this course
(PHYS-2021) does not affect the grade eared in PHYS-2020 and vise-versa.
The lab instructions posted below have either been written by faculty of
the Department of Physics and Astronomy of East Tennessee State University
or are modified versions of instructions provided by PASCO.
Course Syllabus:
Course Syllabus for PHYS-2021,
General Physics II Laboratory
ETSU Syllabus Attachment.
General Physics Laboratory Software:
Many of the lab experiments performed in this General Physics
II Laboratory course make use of lab experiments designed by PASCO
Scientific. All of these labs use the PASCO Capstone Software.
Information about this software can be found by clicking this
link. This website has links to lots of tutorials (and the user
manual at the bottom, which has the links to the YouTube videos in it).
Students are encouraged to read the material on this website prior
to performing these experiments.
Labs During the Coronavirus Pandemic
During the current Coronavirus Pandemic, ETSU has elected to return to
on-campus course offerings for the Fall 2021 semester. However, due to
the rapid rise in COVID-19 infection rates due to the Delta Variant,
classes might revert back to the ``remote'' online course offerings.
Due to this, both the on-campus and online lab experiments for a given
week are posted below. Make sure you download the correct lab based
upon the status of course offerings at ETSU.
In the table below, there are 4 columns. The first is the dates of the
given week of lab, depending upon which lab section you are enrolled.
The second is a link to the "In-Class Lab," and the third, a
link to the "OnLine Lab." The fourth column is the ID for a
given experiment. Please note that your instructor
will pass out a hardcopy of the "In-Class Lab" at the beginning of
class, so students will not need to print those labs out before coming
to class.
D2L Web Site
To access the course D2L web site, below is
a link to get you to this:
D2L Web Site Login Page.
Lab Reports are to be turned into the instructor during class time.
Should the University shift back to remote learning, you will find
a Dropbox on the course D2L webpage to upload your online experiments.
Note that "filled-out" experiments must be uploaded by 6 p.m. on the
Due Date specified by your instructor.
Fall 2021 Laboratory Experiment Schedule:
While the labs are being carried out on campus, we will
be doing the "In-Class Labs" posted below. Note that these "In-Class"
lab experiment directions posted below will be passed out to you in class.
As the semester progresses, some of the "In-Class" labs
posted below, will be modified.
| Week |
In-Class Lab |
Online Lab |
Experiment ID |
|---|
| August 26, 27 |
Coulomb's Law/Electrostatics
Electrostatic Charges Lab Report |
Coulomb's Law Online Lab |
ELEC-1 |
| September 2, 3 |
Capacitance
Capacitance Lab Report |
Capacitance Online Lab |
ELEC-6 |
| September 9, 10 |
No PHYS-2021 Labs This Week |
(Labor Day Week) |
|
| September 16, 17 |
Ohm's Law
Ohm's Law Lab Report |
Ohm's Law Online Lab |
ELEC-2 |
| September 23, 24 |
RC Circuits |
RC Circuits Online |
ELEC-5 |
| Sep 30, Oct 1 |
Resistivity |
Resistivity Online |
ELEC-4 |
| October 7, 8 |
Earth’s Magnetic Field |
Magnetic Fields Online |
MAGN-1 |
| October 14, 15 |
No PHYS-2021 Labs This Week |
(Fall Break Week) |
|
| October 21, 22 |
Magnetic Fields of Coils |
Snell's Law Online |
MAGN-2/OPTC-3 |
| October 28, 29 |
Vibrating Strings |
Vibrating Strings Online |
WAVE-1 |
| November 4, 5 |
Resonance of Sound |
Resonance of Sound Online |
WAVE-2 |
| November 11, 12 |
No PHYS-2021 Labs This Week |
(Veteran's Day: 11/11) |
|
| November 18, 19 |
Mirrors, Lenses & Image Formation |
Mirrors and Lenses Online |
OPTC-5 |
| November 25, 26 |
No PHYS-2021 Labs This Week |
(Thanksgiving Holiday) |
|
| December 2, 3 |
Interference & Diffraction of Light |
Interference & Diffraction Online |
OPTC-4 |
Lab Policies
The sharing of lab data is not allowed after the lab has been performed, that is,
should a student miss a lab, their lab partner is not to supply them with the data to
write their reports. Even though students in the same lab group will have the same
measurements made for the experiments, each student’s Lab Report should be unique.
That is, the write-up must be their own work. Lab Reports that are virtually
"carbon copies" of another student's will be regarded as a violation of academic misconduct.
Each student is required to have their own scientific calculator with you
during the lab session. Such calculators have the ability to express numbers in
scientific notation, be able to calculate trigonometry functions and their inverse, have
logarithm and anti-logarithms functions, calculate powers and roots of numbers, and possess
the exponential function.
There are NO grades of Incomplete (I) given to a student in a
General Physics Lab course. Your grade will be based upon your total lab score as
indicated on the Lab Syllabus.
Significant digits rules will always be followed, units should always
be given with numbers, and measurement uncertainties should always be present with
your measurements when multiple measurements are made to deduce these uncertainties.
Fractional points will be deducted from the total score if these items are missing.
Click here to go to the Department of Physics and Astronomy
homepage.
Last modified: August 26, 2021 by D.G. Luttermoser