General Information

A lab course for all introductory physics students.
Required as a corequisite for PHYS 1112 or PHYS 1116. If you take either course without taking this one, you will be required to take this as a corequisite for PHYS 2213 or PHYS 2217.

Prerequisites

This class is intended as a corequisite for PHYS 1112 or PHYS 1116, so it effectively has the same prerequisites as either of those classes.

Topics Covered

Workload

10 homework assignments over the course of the semester, each taking approximately 1 and a half hours. 1 lecture and 1 lab section per week. 3 quizzes with the 3rd one more like a final exam. [Fall 2022]

There are 5 quizzes in total, graded on correctness. There are 5 units. Each unit has one or two labs. There is a lab session and a lecture each week. There is also a final project at the end of the term. [Fall 2024]

General Advice

  • This class emphasizes ways of thinking in the lab, so during your lab sections, detail your lab notes with your thought processes and educated experimental decisions. [Fall 2022]
  • Do the most that you can in those 2 hour lab sections. They go by fast so make the most of the time available [Fall 2022]
  • For this class, make sure that your lab notes are as detailed as possible. Make sure you explain all of your thoughts and any decisions that you make during the experiment. There’s not many ways to study for the quizzes, so make you look over the slides and study them. Also make sure all of your lab group members look over what you wrote to detect any mistakes. [Fall 2024]

Testimonials

  • This class focuses on experimental procedures and, therefore, includes a good amount of statistics. Much of this content is subjective, so make sure to understand the reasoning and thought processes behind everything first. Lecture attendance is taken via PollEV participation. [Fall 2022]
  • This class teaches you how to conduct experiments, including measurements, uncertainties, distinguishability, fitting, some linearization, and data collection. This class uses iClickers to take attendance and quizzes. Also, this class uses a bit of Python coding; you’ll learn easily as you learn along the way, but just as a heads up. [Fall 2024]

    Past Offerings

Semester Professor Median Grade Syllabus
FA22 Natasha Holmes A PHYS1110_FA22.pdf
FA24 Natasha Holmes N/A PHYS1110_FA24.pdf