PHYS 331
Tue. 14:00-15:30 (Lecture)
Tue. 09:30-12:30 (Lab)
My schedule

Experimental Physics I
Room: LIB 303
Room: SCI 239
Term 1

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Below, I provide a sample of supplemental notes and references for anyone interested. There is an abundance of materials and they are not required reading. The interested student can pick and chose which, if any, of these materials they wish to review.

The goals of providing this materail are to:

(1) show that approaching the subject from different perspectives leads to consistent results, but can uncover new insights

(2) show some examples of how TLs can be used to investigate wave phenomena in electromagnetism, electronics, classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and solid state physics

-TL theory developed from an impedance recussion relation. Contains some fun math.
-TL theory developed from a linear array of point masses connected by springs. Leads to phonon dispersion in descrete TLs and waves on a string in the continuous limit.
-TL analysis to derive the 1-D blackbody spectrum and, by extension, the thermal noise radiated by a resistor at temperature T.
-TL analysis of the PHYS 232 thermal waves experiment.

TLs are also used in current research. Discrete articificial TLs can be engineered to have properties not found in natural materials.

To enroll, click on the link that can be found on the PHYS 331 Canvas page.

Unzip the file and find to folder relevant to your project.

There is a 10-page limit for all formal reports. This includes the abstract, all figures, all tables, and the bibliography.

See the course syllabus for the late policy.

Experiment #1 formal report due Mon., Oct. 27 @ 23:59
    -- upload a pdf of your report to Canvas.

Experiment #2 formal report due Mon., Dec. 8 @ 23:59
    -- upload a pdf of your report to Canvas.

Each presentation will 12 minutes long with up to 3 minutes for questions.

The presenations will be on:

Tuesday, November 25
Tuesday, December 2

Everyone will participate in grading the class presentations.

Here are links to the grading rubric and the grading form.

There are six categories and each presenter will be assigned a mark out of 10 for each category. If two presenters are working together, they will receive the same marks for the first four categories, but will receive individual marks for the final two.

Everyone will get a mark out of 90 for their presentation. Eight of the remaining 10 marks will be rewarded based on attendence.

You are required to email me your presentation slides by 13:00 on the day of your presentation. If you meet this deadline, you will receive 2 marks. Acceptable formats are pdf, ppt, pptx, and a link to a Google Slides link.

Python is being support because:
    - It is a commonly-used program language in physics research and industry
    - It is freely available for anyone to use

You can write and execute Python code using UBC's Open Jupyter Hub. You don't need to install any software, just log in using your CWL.

As an alternative, you can also write and execute Python code using UBC's Jupyter Hub. You don't need to install any software, just log in using your CWL.

If you'd prefer to write and run code on your own system, you can download and install the individual editions of the Anaconda Toolkit.

You can also refer to this set of Python tutorials that demonstrate how to complete some of the common data analysis tasks that you might encounter.

If you prefer, you can complete your data analysis tasks in MATLAB. UBC students are eligible for a free MATLAB license.

Here is a set of MATLAB tutorials. Although you are free to use MATLAB to complete you lab data analysis, MATLAB support from your PHYS 331 instructor/TA will will be very limited/nonexistent.

If you prefer and, if you have access to it, you can complete your data analysis tasks in Maple. Note that UBC does not have a student license for Maple. Here is a set of Maple tutorials. Although you are free to use Maple to complete you lab data analysis, Maple support from your PHYS 331 instructor/TA will will be very limited/nonexistent.

Note that, to the best of my knowledge, Excel does not easily do weighted fits to data sets. Therefore, in PHYS 331, Excel is generally not a suitable tool for data analysis.

Documents to introduce you to LaTeX
.zip archive

This short set of instructions will help you get started with Texmaker.

PHYS 331 projects

You can find more details about the each project by reviewing the Files uploaded to the PHYS 331 Canvas page.

Lecture Notes

Here's a link to a YouTube Playlist.

I cannot guarantee that the video content will be identical or presented in the same sequence as the W2024 lectures. However, I do expect to the content to be similar.

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URL:https://cmps-people.ok.ubc.ca/jbobowsk/phys331.html