Instructor: Daniel W. Koon
Office: 211 Bewkes

Phone: 229-5494

Office Hours: T, W 10:15-11:45 These are my (tentative) office hours, but I am usually around so come find me. If my door is open, I am lurking somewhere in the physics department.

Text: There is not a required text for the lab. However, there are a number of texts that you may find useful in the Reklis collection or the library.

Course overview:

This is the lab that accompanies the course in Electricity and Magnetism. The primary purpose of this lab is to introduce you to electronics.

Course requirements:

The general format of the lab will be a mini lecture followed by a lab exercise. Typically the lab exercise will involve building a circuit and analyzing certain aspects of its behavior. You will be required to keep a detailed lab notebook that will be discussed below. This notebook will be a major component of your grade. There will be one exam in the middle of the semester where you will be tested on the lab material covered up to that point. You may be given brief reading or homework assignments on topics covered in the lab. In the second part of the semester each of you will complete an independent project which is also discussed below.

Lab Notebooks:

You will be required to keep an accurate and complete lab notebook. For example, if you are testing a circuit, your notebook should include a labeled circuit diagram, a description of what you expect the circuit to do, and any data that you may take. The data should include drawings and descriptions of how waveforms may vary when parameters are adjusted. Note any discrepancies between what you expect your circuit to do and its actual behavior. You should keep your lab notes in your notebook. Your notebook will be turned in weekly for a grade.

Independent Project:

Your project will involve building a circuit and analyzing its behavior. You may be asked to compare two circuits or to design a better circuit than the one you are given. You will write a report indicating what your circuit looks like, what it is designed to do, and show data indicating how it behaves. Each of you will present your project to the physics department.

Exams:

There will be one exam given in class covering the material completed before the exam. Questions on the exams will deal with the circuits that you have studied in class, and with any electronics guidelines that you have learned.

Grading:

Midterm Exam 20%

Lab notebook 45%

Assignments 10%

Project report 15%

Oral presentation 10%

Tentative schedule of topics:
 

Week	Topic	Week	Topic
1	Ohm's Law	8	Op amps
2	Loading and Diodes	9	Op amps
3	RC Circuits	10	Op amps
4	RC Filters	11	Project
5	Filters	12	Project
6	Diodes and DC Power	13	Project
7	Midterm exam	14	Oral Presentations