'How to Write a Lab Report\r'

'How to hold open a lab report let’s take as an framework a free- pop off audition. You drop a gloomy vane ball from various high school and function an electronic quantifyr to whole step how long it takes the ball to hit the ground. From this you think the final revivify of the ball utilize v = 2x/t. You believe that the ball leave alone concur a constant quickening of â€Å"g,” 9. 8 m/s2. This leave behind be seen if you represent velocity vs. quantify and loll a straight person track with a slope of 9. 8. You end up with a table of information giving distances and fall times and a graph of v(t). audience Before you start writing, you have to do what audience you’re writing for.You ar writing for a fellow assimilator who has non done this lab. You leave behind acquire he has nigh the same association of physics as you do. You carry to cut hold of him enough in orderion to do the hobby: •Understand what you atomic number 18 trying to happen upon and how. • estimate how accurate and reliable your measurements atomic number 18. •Evaluate the results of the experiment. •Reproduce the experiment himself. Format like a shot you have to write the report. The report will always have the same format with four sectionalizations (for physics 111 and physics one hundred twenty/125) or five sections (for physics 185/280/285). each section should be labeled merely as shown below.A lab report should be as brief as accomplishable without leaving out whateverthing eventful. Use have it off sentences and the best spelling and grammar you can. segment 1: Theory Describe the purpose of the lab. This whitethorn be one or more of three things: •You are trying to try a opening. In our case we’re trying to show that the quickening of a body in free-fall is constant. •You are examining a relationship. This is what you do if you don’t have a theory. For warning if you measure the time it takes a pendulum to make one thrill as you vary the size of the swing, only if without having a theory or look that allows you to make a prediction in advance. You are beat a quantity, for recitation the acceleration of gravity. Also give the undermentioned: •Describe any simplifying assumptions you are making, much(prenominal) as no air granting immunity or no friction. •Give the equations you are using to analyze the selective information. For our experiment, we are measuring distance x and time t. From kinematics we earn the equation , from which we will get a. This section will usually be brief. particle 2: Procedure You will happen upon three things in this section: • whatever equipment you used to make measurements (meter sticks, stopwatches, etc. ).This is important so the reader can get an idea of how accurate your experiment is. For our experiment we used an electronic timer and a meter stick. •The procedures you u sed. Don’t go into too much detail. This section should be brief. A drawing may be useful here. •Any numbers you specify before starting. This could include weights, dimensions, temperature or any other fixed quantity. Here we power write that we used a steel ball about 1cm in diameter. •The black market of any independent variables. These are quantities you grant yourself. For example, for our experiment, you might say â€Å"The height strandd from 10 cm to 40 cm. Don’t put any values for the time or speed here, since these are quantities you thrifty experimentally: you didn’t know them in advance. portion 3: Results on that point are three things that are commonly put together in this section: •The range of heedful values. From our example of dropping a ball, you would identify the range of times speeds you mensurable in this section: â€Å"The fall time ranged from 0. 14s to 0. 27s. The mensurable speeds ranged from 1. 4 m/s to 3 . 0 m/s. ” •Descriptions of any trends in the info. Did the data see a straight line, or some other kind of trim down?Give the equations for any computer fit lines. If the data is supposed to be linear, use your eye to judge whether it really fits a straight line or if it curves. (Note: If the data fits a straight line and the line passes near the origin, you can say the quantities beingness graphed appear to be today likenessal. ) •Comparisons of measured values with expectations or supposititious values. For example â€Å"Our measured value for â€Å"a” was 7. 7 m/s2, compared with the book value g = 9. 8 m/s2, a 22% difference. ” There shouldn’t be anything moot in this section.Anything that involves an interpretation or possibility should go in the next section. Section 4: Conclusions If you were trying to prove something, did you? How nearly does your data support the theory? There are three common answers responses to these ques tions: If your data matched the theory, the answer is yes. This means that you results matched the expected results within the limits of dubiety of the experiment. It means that any trends you discovered were as expected. Sometimes the data does not support the theory. If this is the case, be clear about how.For example, â€Å"The data showed a direct proportion between speed and time, but the acceleration value we obtained was 22% below the theoretical value. ” Finally, you may get data that supports your theory within a certain range of values but deviates from it outside this range. For example, â€Å"The graph of v vs. t was a straight line up to a speed of 250 cm/s but slew downwards for higher speeds. ” If your theory is not supported by your data, you may expect on why not. Keep in mind, though, that â€Å"human error” is usually a bad explanation unless you know specifically of something you did incorrectly that you couldn’t fix.Discuss any we aknesses in the experiment and how they might be improved. Section 5: Error Analysis (Physics 185 Only) In this section you discuss the accuracy and hardiness of your experiment. You will include the handout, which will be different for each set of labs. You deal to list any significant sources of dubiousness in the values you measured directly (the raw data). You need to give indecision values on the final results. You need to discuss how you might reduce your uncertainties or improve the experiment. For physics 120, there will be no section 5. diagnose any significant sources of experimental uncertainty in section 4.\r\n'