This laboratory course will cover topics pertaining to elementary mechanics. Goal: to witness some of the laws and equations of physics "in action." In this course, we will not be "verifying" these laws; they've been tested for hundreds of years and seem pretty sound. Instead, we will concentrate on making connections between what you observe in the lab and the theoretical concepts and equations discussed in lecture and in the textbook.
This separately graded course will, in some ways, parallel the material covered in lecture, but the 2 courses are not closely tied together. Sometimes you will encounter concepts in the laboratory course first, and other times, it will be the other way around. Occasionally, you may even perform an experiment related to material that is not covered in the lecture class.
| Week of February 4 |
No labs - first week of class |
| Week of February 11 | 2 labs: Significant Figures/Sci
Notation AND Introduction to the Computer Interface |
| Week of February 18 |
No labs - Presidents' Day |
| Week of February 25 |
Acceleration in Freefall: tape
timer |
| Week of March 4 |
Vector Addition |
| Week of March 11 | 2 labs: Atwood's Machine AND Projectile Motion |
| Week of March 18 |
Lab Quiz #1 |
| Week of March 25 |
No Labs (spring break) |
| Week of April 1 |
Collisions in 1-D |
| Week of April 8 |
No Labs |
| Week of April 15 |
Standing Waves |
| Week of April 22 | Moment of Inertia |
| Week of April 29 |
No Labs |
| Week of May 6 |
Conservation of Angular Momentum |
| Week of May 13 | Lab Quiz #2 |
| Week of May 20 |
No Labs (Finals Week) |