Welcome to PHYS 471 at CCNY

This is the course page for City College Course PHYS 471, Advanced Physics Lab II, in the SPRING 2023 semester

The course syllabus is here: Syllabus


General Structure

In this course, you will learn more advanced lab techniques. We will become fluent in the use of various experimental physics instruments including:

  • Oscilloscopes
  • Digital Voltmeter
  • Power Supplies
  • DAQ and other automation tools
  • Lock-in Amplifiers
  • and more.

We will use computer scripts to automate data acquisition and to perform data analysis.

The Labs

  • Exp 1 - Oscilloscope: Obtain the spectrum of a tuning fork. Read more →
  • Exp 2 - Speed of Sound in Metal: Measure the speed of sound in an aluminum rod. Read more →
  • Exp 3 - Replot: Duplicate an interesting (or unintersting) plot from an Open Data publication. Read more →
  • Exp 4 - Lock-In: Measure the light passing passing through an aperture of various sizes. Read more →

Lab Practical

We will have a lab practical exam during which you will be asked to perform some basic functions using the tools we have looked at this semester. More specifics here: Lab Practical Topics


Tutorials/Guides

  1. Software/Coding
    1. First steps for Python/Colab
    2. Basic Function Plotting with Python:
    3. Basic Data Importing with Python:
    4. Data analysis
  2. Hardware Specific

Lab Schedule

Use the link below to go to the schedule. Please make a comment on the page to indicate your request. I will add you to the time slot you have indicated.

Schedule →

The Lab Staff

The Chief College Laboratory Technician that will be part of this class is Robert (Bob) Suhoke. He knows these experiments very well and will help during your lab times.

Report Template

Please use this overleaf template to prepare reports: Latex Template

Your reports should be nice pdfs (like this) with images and plots in them (not as separate files or link). For some, you will need to link to external data/scripts.

Course Schedule and Materials

The schedule is subject to change, but this represents the most likely dates for those items.

Date Topic In class Assignment Extras
Jan 30 Intro Slides The Craft
Feb 6 State Slides
Feb 13
Feb 21 Lab 1 Writeup Due
Feb 27
Mar 6
Mar 13
Mar 20 Lab 2 Writeup Due
Mar 27 Lab 3 Writeup Due
Apr 3
Apr 10
Apr 17
Apr 24
May 1
May 8
May 15

Other information

Physics page for Current Students

Communication

To comply with FERPA guidelines, please use your ccny email to correspond with me. Include your name and section number, and EMPLID if you need administrative actions done.