1 Introduction

These notes are intended to help you with two related tasks that you will
encounter throughout your time in Cambridge. These are: rstly, how to keep a
good record when you perform an experiment, and secondly, how to write a
formal report of a class experiment or project.
Part of the aim of the practical classes in Years 1 and 2 is to teach you these
skills. These notes provide some general guidance, but you will nd it very
helpful to look at some of the references in section 5, as well as looking at
journals to see scientic writing in action.
All the formal reports you write are assessed. However, this is as much a part of
the learning exercise as a way of accumulating credit for the Tripos. In the rst
two years, comparatively little credit (in terms of percentage of your nal mark in
Part IA and Part IB) is associated with your reports since you are learning the
skills of good scientic writing and communication. In Part II and Part III the
reports you write will determine a signicant proportion of your nal mark.
Learning the skills of communicating the work you have done is, however, far
more important than just gaining examination credit because the production of
clearly written reports is central to most professions.
2 Writing lab notes
2.1 Introduction
The purpose of a scientists lab notes is to record what was done in an
experiment, together with the results. They need not be particularly tidy, but
they should be understandable by the writer or somebody else at a later date,
for example when analysing the results in detail, or writing them up for
publication or a formal report. Any information that might conceivably be
relevant should be recorded even if it is not going to be used in the short term.
The notes should also enable you to recreate accurately the experiment at a
later date if more results are needed.
As you progress through the Physics course you will nd it necessary to record
more complete information because the experiments become less standard.
However, even in the rst year, you should make and record a quick estimate of
errors each time you start taking a new type of measurement. This will enable
you to carry out an error analysis later should it be required, without guessing at
scales and resolutions. When you take precautions to guard against certain
problems, note them down.
1
2.2 Specic guidance
Your notebook must be A4 in size and hard-bound. A suitable book can be
boughtPurpose

By a careful and diligent study of natural laws I trust that we shall at least escape
the dangers of vague and desultory modes of thought and acquire a habit of
healthy and vigorous thinking which will enable us to recognise error in all the
popular forms in which it appears and to seize and hold fast truth whether it be
old or new...[But] I have no reason to believe that the human intellect is able to
weave a system of physics out of its own resources without experimental labour.
Whenever the attempt has been made it has resulted in an unnatural and selfcontradictory mass of rubbush. James Clerk Maxwell
Physics and engineering rely on quantitative experiments. Experiments are
designed simplications of nature: line drawings rather than color photographs.
The hope is that by stripping away the details, the essence of nature is revealed.
(Of course, the critics of science would argue that the essence of nature is lost in
simplication: a dissected frog is no longer a frog.) While the aim of experiment
is appropriate simplication, the design of experiments is anything but simple.
Typically it involves days (weeks, months, ...) of ddling before the experiment
nally works. I wish this sort of creative problem-oriented process could be
taught in a scheduled lab period, but limited time and the many prerequisites
make this impossible. Look for more creative labs starting next year!
Thus this Lab Manual describes experiences (labs) that are a caricature of
experimental physics. Our labs will typically emphasize thorough preparation, an
underlying mathematical model of nature, good experimental technique, analysis
of data (including the signicance of error) ...the basic prerequisites for doing
science. But your creativity will be circumscribed. You will nd here instructions
which are not a part of real experiments (where the methods and/or outcomes
are not known in advance). In my real life as a physicist, I have little use for
instructions, but Im going to try and force you to follow them in this