Experimental Physics: Principles and Practice for the Laboratory

ISBN-13: 9781032336657 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022 / 452 str.

Walter Fox Smith

Opis

This textbook provides the knowledge and skills needed for thorough understanding of the most important methods and ways of thinking in experimental physics. The reader learns to design, assemble, and debug apparatus, to use it to take meaningful data, and to think carefully about the story told by the data.

Recenzje

"Smith (Haverford College) has edited a well-designed and beautifully crafted book for use in the advanced lab-a typical upper-level course taken by the physics major-that is refreshingly based on contemporary laboratory pedagogy. Smith has independently authored 8 of the 21 chapters and coauthored another. The authors of remaining chapters are mostly experienced laboratory faculty. The writing is generally fluid, balancing a friendly informality with precise instruction. The text begins with 5 foundational chapters addressing laboratory philosophy, communicating results, the ethics of research, uncertainty, and statistical analysis. The next 7 chapters focus on electronic technologies, data interfacing, optics, and vacuum technology. The last 8 chapters address more specific subject-matter topics (e.g., "Biophysics," "Condensed Matter Physics") but also include one on developing independent undergraduate projects. . . . this book is a substantial contribution suitable for adoption in programs that support an undergraduate upper-level physics curriculum. Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty."

- J. R. Burciaga, Colorado College, USA, in CHOICE April 2021 Vol. 58 No. 8

Spis treści

Contents

Preface...................................................................................................................................................... vii

Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................................... xi

Part I Fundamentals

1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................... 3

Walter Fox Smith

2. Planning and Carrying Out Experiments...................................................................................... 7

Walter F. Smith

3. Presenting Your Results................................................................................................................. 19

Walter F. Smith

4. Uncertainty and Statistics.............................................................................................................. 29

Paul Thorman

5. Scientific Ethics............................................................................................................................... 53

Grace McKenzie-Smith

Part II Tools of an Experimentalist

6. Analog Electronics.......................................................................................................................... 73

Walter F. Smith

7. Fundamentals of Interfacing Experiments with Computers.................................................... 133

Walter F. Smith

8. Digital Electronics......................................................................................................................... 143

Brian Collett

9. Data Acquisition and Experiment Control with Python........................................................... 195

Paul Freeman and Jami Shepherd

10. Basic Optics Techniques and Hardware..................................................................................... 227

Walter F. Smith

11. Laser Beams, Polarization, and Interference............................................................................. 247

Justin Peatross and Michael Ware

12. Vacuum........................................................................................................................................... 263

Walter F. Smith

13. Particle Detection.......................................................................................................................... 267

Joseph Kozminski

Part III Fields of Physics

14. Development and Supervision of Independent Projects............................................................ 289

Melissa Eblen-Zayas

15. Condensed Matter Physics........................................................................................................... 299

Walter F. Smith

16. Biophysics....................................................................................................................................... 307

Mason Klein

17. Non-Linear, Granular, and Fluid Physics................................................................................... 327

Nathan C. Keim

18. Atomic and Molecular Physics..................................................................................................... 341

Robbie Berg and Glenn Stark

19. Photonics and Fiber Optics.......................................................................................................... 371

Jay Sharping and Walter F. Smith

20. Experiments with Entangled Photons......................................................................................... 377

Enrique J. Galvez

21. Nuclear and Particle Physics........................................................................................................ 403

Brett Fadem

Index........................................................................................................................................................431

O autorze

Walter F. Smith is the Paul and Sally Bolgiano Professor of Physics at Haverford College, where he has taught the advanced lab course more than twenty times. He earned his PhD from Harvard University. He is co-author of more than 30 peer-reviewed research articles, six of which specifically focus on new experimental apparati or techniques, and maintains an active research group centered on the photoelectronic properties of organic nanowires. He is author of the textbook "Waves and Oscillations: A Prelude to Quantum Mechanics".