2015: Difference between revisions

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==Other Useful Resources==
==Other Resources==


'''Data Analysis'''
'''Data Analysis'''
*Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling, Flannery, ''Numerical Recipes in C'' (Available online)
*Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling, Flannery, ''Numerical Recipes in C'' (Available online)
*Lupton, "Statistics in Theory and Practice"
*Lupton, "Statistics in Theory and Practice"
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*A Not Too Short Introduction to LaTeX: [[media:not_too_short.pdf]]
*A Not Too Short Introduction to LaTeX: [[media:not_too_short.pdf]]
<!--You might also find useful [[Main_Page#Syllabus_and_Extra_Information| websites from previous years]].-->
<!--You might also find useful [[Main_Page#Syllabus_and_Extra_Information| websites from previous years]].-->
'''Tutorials'''
'''Previous Year's Tutorials'''
* [[Analysis 1 | Analysis 1: Mean, Variance, and Error Propagation]]
* [[Analysis 1 | Analysis 1: Mean, Variance, and Error Propagation]]
* [[Analysis 2 | Analysis 2: Goodness of Fit]]
* [[Analysis 2 | Analysis 2: Goodness of Fit]]

Revision as of 22:13, 23 January 2015

Welcome to Advanced Physics Lab 2015!

Instructors

Professor: Tobias Marriage (marriage@pha.jhu.edu)

Teaching Assistant: Devin Crichton (dcrichto@pha.jhu.edu)

Lab Guru: Steve Wonnell (wonnell@pha.jhu.edu)

The Advanced Lab Summary

In this class, you will conduct experiments, analyze data, and write up your results in reports.

Classes

The class times are Monday 10:00-12:50 and 1:30-4:20.

The class location is the Physics Undergraduate Computer lab (PUClab). A PUCLab login for the computers may also be useful. Access to the lab and computers is managed by Steve Wonnel.

Laptops should be brought to class.

The first half of class will be devoted to lecture and discussion of that week's topics. The first half of the 10am and 1:30am classes will be similar.

The second half of class will be devoted to work with hands on help from instructors.

Experiments

Brownian Motion (BM): The goal of this experiment is to estimate the Boltzmann constant using a measurement of the Brownian motion of microscopic spheres.

Speed of Light (SoL): In this experiment you use the classic "time of flight" measurement by Foucault to estimate the speed of light.

Galactic Rotation (GR): In this experiment you'll use a radio telescope to measure the rotational velocities in the Galactic disk and judge whether the data better fits a model with or without dark matter.

Raw Data Sets

Each student will collect their own data. For SoL, two students will need to collaborate, but each should obtain their own dataset.

Initial submission of data sets for evaluation occurs in the first week or two of the experiment.

Safety

Use your common sense in all situations. In these labs you'll encounter manageable hazards. Follow the instructions carefully. Food and drink are not allowed near the labs. Safety also follows from orderliness: please keep (and leave) the lab in an organized state. When in doubt ask an instructor.

Analysis

Analysis is the evaluation of data towards an interpretation that accounts for errors in the data. Roughly speaking there will be three analysis steps in this class:

  1. Process the raw data sets into a reduced dataset with errors,
  2. Interpret the reduced data in the context of a physical model and
  3. Assess the impact of systematic errors.

Tool for Analysis

The tool we will use for the analysis is the Python programming language and its numerical and scientific computing modules.

You will submit an IPython Notebook with your report.

Reports

For each experiment you will write a report.

The reports will be presented in a standard scientific format with use of figures and tables.

More information can be found in the report checklist.

Feedback

The professor will read and grade the reports. For the first two reports, students will meet one-on-one with the professor to discuss their work.

Tool for Reports

The document preparation system for reports is LaTeX.

You can also download LaTeX freeware for your personal computers (e.g., TeXworks on all platforms, TeXShop for Mac, TeXnicCenter for Windows).

Good online LaTeX editors also exist (e.g., ShareLaTeX, papeeria).

The computers in the PUC lab have various installations of LaTeX editors/compilers.

Readings

Lectures will be based on

Bevington & Robinson, Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences, 3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-247227-8, 2003

I will have a couple class copies that you can read in the lab. Please keep these in the PUCLab.

Schedule

Date 1st Half of Class Reading 2nd Half of Class and Homework
Jan 26 Class Overview; Experiments, Measurement & Errors 1 Bev. Ch1 Install Ipython Notebook; Install LaTeX or use On-line LaTeX editor
media:LaTeX_Example.txt, media:Python_Example.txt
Feb 02 Measurement and Errors 2; BM Introduction; LaTeX Tutorial Bev. Ch 1&2 Submit 1st BM Photoset by Sun Feb 08 11:59 pm (Email TA)
media:AdvLabBrownianMotion2015.pdf
Feb 09 Probability Distributions; BM Analysis Discussion; Python Tutorial 1 Bev. Ch 2 Start analysis & writing initial sections of report
media:Python_Tutorial_1_Data.txt
Feb 16 Propagation of Errors Bev. Ch 3 Working on Full Report
Feb 23 Method of Maximum Likelihood Bev. Ch 4 BM Report Due Friday Feb 27 5pm (Email Prof)
Mar 2 Student's t and Chi-sq Distributions; SoL Introduction Bev. Ch 6 Submit 1st SoL Data by Sun Mar 8 11:59 pm (GoogleForm); Schedule BM Report Reviews
media:SpeedOfLightOverview2015 .pdf
Mar 9 Linear Least Squares 1; SoL Analysis Discussion; Python Tutorial 2 Bev. Ch 6 BM Report Reviews
Mar 17-21 Spring Break
Mar 23 Review Line Fitting Bev. Ch 7 BM Report Reviews
Mar 30 General Linear Least Squares SoL Report Due Friday April 3 5pm (Email Prof)
Apr 6 Nonlinear Fitting 1; GR Introduction Bev. Ch 8 Schedule SoL Report Reviews
media:GRIntroduction2015.pdf
Apr 13 Nonlinear Fitting 2; Python Tutorial 3 Bev. Ch 8 Submit 1st GR Data by Sun Apr 19 11:59 pm (GoogleForm); SoL Report Reviews
media:Python_Tutorial_3_Data.txt
Apr 20 Experiment/Analysis Topic Review - SoL Report Reviews
Apr 27 Reserved for Overflow - GR lab due on Friday May 1 5pm (Email Prof)

Other Resources

Data Analysis

  • Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling, Flannery, Numerical Recipes in C (Available online)
  • Lupton, "Statistics in Theory and Practice"

LaTeX

Previous Year's Tutorials

And of course... Wikipedia!