Laboratory

Each of you should be enrolled in one of the laboratory sections associated with this course. The laboratory experiments illustrate some of the concepts we will be studying, and will serve to remind you that physics is an observational science, grounded in experiment. Doing the experiments yourself will allow you to confront the real-world issues of accuracy and precision, experimental error, and how to decide whether your results agree with theoretical expectations to within the limitations of the experimental setup.

Laboratories begin the first week of classes. Note that for safety reasons, no food or drink is allowed in the laboratories, and closed-toe shoes must be worn for experiments.

Recitations

Each laboratory period will begin with a half-hour recitation session, where you can discuss problems which have been completed, or ones which are not yet due. The conduct of these sessions will be determined by your recitation instructor, base on the current course material. You will receive a grade in the recitation session which is determined by your level of participation and any quizzes which may be given. Recitations begin the second week of classes.

Grading

You will be assigned a laboratory grade by your laboratory instructor. This grade will make up 20% of your final course grade. You must have 60% or better in the laboratory to pass the course, independent of any other grades.

Your laboratory grade will be based 75% on your laboratory reports, 10% on the laboratory final exam, and 15% on your recitation grade.