There is no text for this lab but I strongly one of these books to understand data analysis:
John R. Taylor, Introduction to Error Analysis, 2nd Edition, ISBN 0-935702-75-X, List Price $38
Philip R. Bevington, Data Reduction and Error Analysis, 3rd Edition, ISBN: 0072472278 , List Price $54 
Most physics majors find Taylor's book to be the best buy
You will be preparing "photo ready" manuscripts suitable to publication to a major journal. All experimental reports must be written on a word processor prepared in accordance to one of the style manuals listed below. All graphs and tables that are a part of that report must be computer generated. Where it is appropriate, fitting functions to the data must be included, e.g. straight lines, Gaussians, exponentials, etc.
A bound notebook (not loose leaf or a box of cafeteria napkins) must be used for recording data and preliminary analysis. You must supply a 3.5” floppy disk for keeping data files and reports generated. The use of multiple disks for record-keeping is strongly discouraged. I do encourage a back-up or multiple back-ups of the data disk be made.
You would be wise to assume that you will have to perform some experiments MULTIPLE times
Your grade will be based on an average of the grades that you receive on the reports. For the first few experiments, I will return the lab reports after editorial and scientific comments, for corrections. Eventually, I will tell you when it is time to “solo”.
“The maintenance of academic integrity is of fundamental importance to the University. Thus it should be clearly understood that acts of plagiarism or any other form of cheating will not be tolerated and that anyone committing such acts risks punishment of a serious nature.
“Academic Dishonesty: Students who commit any act of academic dishonesty may receive from the instructor a failing grade in that portion of the course work in which the act is detected or a failing grade in a course without possibility of withdrawal.
“The faculty member may also present the case to the Office of the Dean of Student Life for disciplinary sanctions. A student who believes a faculty member has dealt unfairly with him/her in a course involving academic dishonesty may seek relief through the Student Complaint Procedure.
“Plagiarism ? To represent written work taken from another source as one's own is plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offense. The academic work of a student must be his/her own. One must give any author credit for source material borrowed from him/her. To lift content directly from a source without giving credit is a flagrant act. To present a borrowed passage without reference to the source after having changed a few words is also plagiarism.”
The penalty for Plagiarism is an automatic “F”.
Also, I will report you to the Academic Council.
| Date | Experiment/Lecture | Due | Warnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 26th | Introduction | None | None |
| September 2nd | Introduction II | Data Sort/Journal Search | None |
| September 9th | Millikan | Error Analysis | None |
| September 16th | Experiment 1 | Millikan | None |
| September 23th | Experiment 2 | Error Analysis Redux | None |
| September 30th | Experiment 3 | Experiment 1 | None |
| October 7th | Experiment 4 | Proposals Due |
None |
| October 14th | Experiment 5 | Experiment 2 | None |
| October 21st | None | Experiment 3 | None |
| October 28th | None | Experiment 4 | 4 Experiments Must Be Submitted |
| November 4th | None | Experiment 5 | 6 Experiments Must Be Submitted |
| November 11th | None | 7 Experiments | 7 Experiments Must Be Submitted |
| November 18nd | None | ALL | ALL Experiments must be Submitted! |
| November 25th | None | Project Reports | Project Reports Due |
| December 2th | Seminar | None | None |
NO MORE THAN 2 EXPERIMENTS WILL BE GRADED IN THE PERIOD OF 11/4/2008to 11/18/2008.
NO EXPERIMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER 11/18/2008
LATE EXPERIMENTS DECAY AT A RATE OF 1 LETTER GRADE / 3 DAYS.