FY531: Experimental physics I (5 ECTS)

STADS: 07012301

Level
Bachelor course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the spring semester.

Teacher responsible
Email: adam@memphys.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Students taking the course are expected to:

• Have knowledge of basic mechanics, electromagnetism and thermodynamics.
• Have knowledge of basic calculus including ordinary and partial differential equations and basic concepts in statistics.
• Have knowledge of computational tools such as MATLAB

Course introduction
The aim of the course is to enable students to design and perform experiments in physics and technology. Experimental physics is generally concerned with the acquisition of knowledge and data on physical phenomena and their applications. The course contains a series of experiments that introduce central experimental methods and illustrate important phenomena and their applications.

The course builds on the knowledge acquired in fundamental physics on the first and second year of the curriculum. The course provides a basis for later courses in experimental physics, for doing individual projects on experimental physics and for participating in research and development projects with an experimental content.

In relation to the competence profile of the degree it is the explicit focus of the course to:

• Give the competence to perform physics experiments including planning, execution, analysis and reporting of the experiments.
• Give skills to investigate physical phenomena with experimental methods.
• Give research-based knowledge on the methods of experimental physics.

Expected learning outcome
The learning objective of the course is that the student demonstrates the ability to:

• Describe the design and construction of experiments in the course.
• Describe the underlying theory of experiments in the course.
• Perform derivations of theoretical models of relevance for the experiments in the course.
• Perform experiments in the laboratory and assess the suitability of own results with respect to data analysis.
• Perform a quantitative analysis of experimental data including the use of computational and statistical methods where relevant.
• Derive conclusions from the analysis of own data.
• Account for experiments and results in the form of a written report.

Subject overview
The following main topics are contained in the course:

1. Waves
2. Surface tension and wetting.
3. Brownian motion.
4. Design and validation of a sensor.

Laboratory experiments are performed in groups of 2-3 students.As introduction to the exercises, the central concepts and methods are introduced. 

Literature

• Noter og laboratorievejledninger.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam

1. Attendance at laboratory exercises. 

Assessment and marking:
a. Exam with internal censor, marked according  to the 7-scale and composed of the following elements:

1. Reports on the laboratory exercises.
2. Individual oral examination based on the reports 

The weight of components (1) and (2) above for the final grade, is announced at the beginning of the course. Internal marking, 7-mark scale. 

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.
Intro phase: 16 hours
Skills training phase: 24 hours, hereof:
 - Laboratory exercises: 24 hours

Educational activities

• Preparation for the experimental work and the construction work.
• Problem solving
• Analysis of experimental data.
• Writing of reports
• Preparation for the oral exam.

Educational form


Language
This course is taught in Danish or English, depending on the lecturer. However, if international students participate, the teaching language will always be English.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.