LABORATORIO DI FISICA I M - Z

Module FRONTAL TEACHING

The course is the first Laboratory and Statistics course attended by students after enrolling in the Degree Programme in Physics.

The aim of the course is to provide students with the fundamentals of the experimental method and the techniques required for the analysis of experimental data.

To achieve this objective, students attend 45 hours of laboratory activities and 30 hours of exercise sessions. During the experimental activities, students are supervised by the lecturer and a tutor. In addition, the constant presence of a laboratory technician ensures that the experiments are always available and that the equipment is kept in proper working order.

At the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand mechanical and thermal phenomena from an experimental, practical, and operational perspective.
• Perform measurements of physical properties.
• Acquire basic knowledge of the operating principles of scientific equipment, general experimental methods, and approaches useful for investigating mechanical and thermal phenomena, including phenomena different from those already studied or measured during the course.
• Acquire basic knowledge and skills useful for designing new devices in the same field.
• Correctly analyse experimental data and produce a scientific report describing the experiment performed, presenting its results, and interpreting them appropriately.
• Communicate the results of an experiment and/or scientific measurement correctly, comprehensively, clearly, and effectively.

Furthermore, with reference to the Dublin Descriptors, the course contributes to the development of the following transferable skills:

Knowledge and understanding

• Ability to use inductive and deductive reasoning.
• Ability to represent a natural phenomenon in terms of scalar and vector physical quantities.
• Ability to formulate a problem using appropriate relationships between physical quantities—algebraic, integral, or differential—and to solve it using analytical or numerical methods.
• Ability to assemble and set up simple experimental configurations and use scientific instrumentation for thermomechanical measurements.
• Ability to perform statistical analysis of data.

Applying knowledge and understanding

• Ability to apply acquired knowledge to the description of physical phenomena using the scientific method rigorously.
• Ability to design simple experiments and analyse the resulting experimental data in all areas of interest in physics, including those with technological applications.

Making judgements

• Ability to reason critically.
• Ability to identify the most appropriate methods for critically analysing, interpreting, and processing experimental data.
• Ability to identify the predictions of a theory or model.
• Ability to assess measurement accuracy, the linearity of instrumental responses, and the sensitivity and selectivity of the techniques employed.

Communication skills

• Ability to present a scientific topic orally, using appropriate language and rigorous terminology, clearly explaining its motivations and results.
• Ability to describe a scientific topic in writing, using appropriate language and rigorous terminology, clearly explaining its motivations and results.

The teaching is divided into lectures, that will be held in the first part of the course, and experiments to do in the laboratory in the second part.
The frontal hours are dedicated to the measurement method, data analysis and statistical elements. Are provided exercises during head-hours in order to prepare students to perform correctly laboratory experiences that they will do in the second part of the teaching.
7 credits (corresponding to 7 hours each) are dedicated to lessons in the classroom, for a total of 49 hours, 2 ECTS (corresponding to 30 hours) are dedicated to exercises and 3 ECTS (45 hours) to laboratory practice. The course, of 12 CFU, thus includes a total of 124 hours of teaching activities.

During the course, guided tours will be scheduled to the National Laboratories of the South and to the Research Institutes working at the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

Regarding attendance at classroom lectures, reference is made to the Academic Regulations, according to which attendance is strongly recommended.

Attendance at laboratory sessions is mandatory because the practical examination will be based on the experiments carried out during laboratory hours.

Attendance signatures will be collected throughout the course.

Unjustified absence from more than 25% of the laboratory sessions will prevent the student from taking the exam during that academic year.

Classroom lectures are normally held twice a week, with each lecture lasting 3 hours.

Laboratory sessions are normally held twice a week, with each session lasting 3 hours.

The course is 12 CFU, equivalent to 12 ECTS. 124 hours including classroom lessons and laboratory exercises.

In particular, 49 hours of classroom instruction, 30 hours of guided exercises and 45 hours of guided laboratory practice are planned and  include both the description of the different experiments in the laboratory and the taking and analysis of the data 

Analysis of the experimental data and statistics

• The Scientific Method
• The measurement of physical quantities. Definition (operational) of physical quantities and its measurement. Fundamental and derived quantities. Units of measurement and units of measurement systems: The International System.
• Presentation of the measures and significant digits. Read a formula and verify its correctness (dimensional analysis)
• Features of a measuring instrument
• Errors and / or uncertainties. Systematic and random errors.
• The total error in measurements, relative error, degree of precision.
• Measures single and / or multiple. The best estimate of the error (mode, median and mean)
• Random events, aleatorie- variables classical definition, relative frequency and axiomatic probability - Total probability, conditional probability, likely composed
• Statistical population - sampling - law of large numbers - mathematical expectation for discrete and continuous random variables - probability density - moments - central limit theorem
• Standard deviation, population standard deviation, and sample average.
•  Error propagation.
•  Representation of data: tables, diagrams and graphs.
• Histograms: discreetly to limit distribution.
• The distribution of Gaussian distribution as a limit for measures affected by random errors.
• The measure of a physical quantity influenced by random events and estimate of the expected value.
• The criterion of maximum likelihood.
•  Probability distributions: t-student, Gaussian, Binomial , Poisson and χ2-distribution distribution
• Test of chi-square.
• Graphic and functional relationships

Laboratory hours (30 hours in the classroom and in the laboratory) dedicated to:

• description of measuring instruments: vernier, various types of calipers;
• description of the mechanical devices used to create and maintain the vacuum;
• Notes on information technology and computer hardware;
• Description of laboratory experiences;
• Statistics exercise.

Laboratory experiments  (45 hours ):

Inclined plane • • Fletcher and Atwood Machine Device • Simple pendulum • Physic Pendulum• Kater reversible pendulum • Pendulum ball, spherometer • Pendulum on bow • Torsion Pendulum • Maxwell's • Springs • Moment of inertia of a flywheel • Rotational kinetic energy.

Pycnometer • Mohr-Westphal balance • viscometer Ostwald • Tension • Venturi tube • Sedimentation.
Calorimeter mixtures of Regnault • Heat propagation in a homogeneous beam • -Equazione perfect gas state of Desormes • Experience and Clement • Kundt Tube • Galton Box

Learning assessment may also be carried out on line, should the conditions require this.

SUGGESTED TEXTS for laboratory, data analysis and statistics

1. J.R. Taylor: Introduzione all'analisi degli errori. Lo studio delle incertezze nelle misure fisiche,  Zanichelli
2. M. Loreti: Teoria degli Errori e Fondamenti di Statistica, Decibel, Padova
3. R. Bevington: Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences
4. R. Ricamo: Guida alle Esperimentazioni di Fisica, Ed. Ambrosiana, Milano
5. E. Perucca: Fisica Generale e Sperimentale, UTET, Torino
6. F.Tyler: A Laboratory Manual of Physics E.Arnould, London
7. lecture slides

In the second semester, students will perform (in groups of 3 or 4 people) the collection and analysis of data from some experiments in the laboratory, assisted by the teacher.

Each group will be engaged in some laboratory experiments according to a calendar that will be made available by the end of the first semester

Among the experiments that students will do during the second teaching period there will also be Galton's experiment. The results will be discussed in class.

Practical test: the student will take an individual practical laboratory test on an experiment drawn from the four (A1, A2, A3, A4), assigned by the teacher to his group in table A. He will deliver a report on this experience with a complete data analysis, which will be discussed during the oral exam.  

Alternatively, the teacher may assign any of the experiences present in the laboratory, regardless of whether it has already been carried out by the student during the course or not. In this second mode, too, the student will have to produce a report to be delivered, usually within one week of the date on which the practical test was carried out.

Oral test: it covers all the topics of the course and the experiences explained by the teacher during the course, even if no experiments have been done on these. There will be a detailed and extensive discussion of the paper presented. The remaining four experiments (A1, A2, A3, A4) will be assigned by the teacher, taking them from Table A

Table A

Inclined plane

Fletcher device

Atwood machine

Simple pendulum (small oscillations)

Simple pendulum (large oscillations)

Plane physical pendulum

Spherical and arc pendulum

Torsion pendulum

Maxwell needle

Oscillations of a spring

Moment of inertia of a flywheel

Kinetic energy of rotation

Experiment on collisions

Table B

Regnault's calorimeter of mixtures

Heat propagation in a homogeneous rod

Pycnometer

Mohr-Westphal balance

Sedimentation

Ostwald viscometer

Surface tension

Venturi tube

Verification of gas laws

Experiment of Clement-Desormes

Kundt tube

EXAM DATES

As a rule, 8 exam sessions are set in each Academic Year; consult the Exam Calendar of the Three-Year Degree Course in Physics: http://www.dfa.unict.it/corsi/L-30/esami .

As illustrated above, these dates refer exclusively to the practical test. Considering the preparation of the laboratory report and the correction by the teacher, the oral exam will be done approximately 7 / 20 days after the practical test.

If the teaching is taught in mixed mode or remotely, the necessary changes may be introduced with respect to what was previously declared, in order to respect the expected program and reported in the syllabus.

Learning assessment may also be carried out on-line, should the conditions require it.

To ensure equal opportunities and in compliance with current laws, interested students may request a personal interview in order to plan any compensatory and/or dispensatory measures based on educational objectives and specific needs.

Students can also contact the CInAP (Centro per l’integrazione Attiva e Partecipata — Servizi per le Disabilità e/o i DSA) referring teacher within their department 

(https://www.cinap.unict.it/content/referenti).

Questions below are not an exhaustive list but are just a few examples.

Covariate matrix, propagation of errors in indirect measurements, Chi-square test, questions on the laboratory paper presented.

NB: this list does not in any way mean that these will be all or only some of the questions that will be proposed to students during the oral exam.