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PHY 320 Intermediate Physics Laboratory II

Important items of business

1. Go to course web site to print copy of syllabus; review syllabus

2. All PHY 320 students are required to conduct the experiment that measures the half-life of a radionuclide; safety matters discussed today.

3. Instructor will provide oral critiques of drafts of reports.

4. Note due dates and times for reports in syllabus:

Caution: You should insure the functionality of the apparatus for any experiment long prior to conducting it.

11 Apr Individual Presentations1: Brown, Frost, Gallis, Larkin, Lawton 18 Apr Individual Presentations1: LeGalle, Lechner, Massaro, Mayer, McCauley 25 Apr Individual Presentations1: Savoy,

Sheriff, Snyder, Sutton, Zeits

2 May Group Presentations2

2 Group presentations are assigned as follows: 

1. Zeeman Effect: Brown, Frost, Gallis, Larkin, Lawton

2. Nuclear Spectroscopy: LeGalle. Lechner, Massaro, Mayer, McCauley

3. Hall Effect: Savoy, Sheriff, Snyder, Sutton, Zeits

21 Mar Panel discussion on Shroud of Turin data, 3:00 p.m.

Format: Oral arguments before the Supreme Court

Class members to be divided into two groups:

1. Defend paper in Nature2. Challenge paper in Nature

Note: Paper in Nature restricts itself to dating the artifact.

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Faulty Assumption: Scientists and the research papers they publish are free of errors and biases.

… a different example from Nature

1 Sverdrup (Sv) = 106 m3/s

A measure of volume of water transport. Benchmark: The entire global input of fresh water from rivers to the oceans is equal to about 1 Sv.

Q: Is 23 ± 6 significantly different from or inconsistent with 15 ± 6?

How did the authors obtain the “about 30 percent” quoted in the abstract?

(22.9 – 14.8)/22.9 = 0.353

(23 – 15)/23 = 0.35

Why did the authors not compute the change as

(23 – 15)/15 = 0.53 ?