This laboratory course provides basic training of experimental skills. These are experimental design, implementation, measurement, data analysis and interpretation, as well as error analysis. The experimental work has to be complemented by a concise written report, which trains the scientific writing skills. Manuals for the individual experiments are available in English.
Learning objective
Students learn to independently perform advanced experiments and document them scientifically correct.
Students are required to attend a safety lecture on the first day of the course and pass the corresponding online moodle-test before being allowed to access the laboratory rooms and perform the experiments.
The following aspects are emphasized: - understanding complicated physical phenomena - structured approach to experiments with complex instruments - various practical aspects of experimenting and determining uncertainties - learning the relevant statistical methods for data analysis - interpretation of measurements and uncertainties - describing the experiments and the results in a scientifically proper manner, in direct analogy to publishing - ethical aspects of experimental research and scientific communication
Content
We offer experiments covering the following topics: Basic topics from mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism and electronics; as well as central topics from nuclear and particle physics, quantum electronics, quantum mechanics, solid state physics and astrophysics.
Lecture notes
Instructions for experiments are available in English.
Prerequisites / Notice
From a variety of over 50 experiments, students have to perform 4 experiments covering different topics. The experimental work is complemented by writing a scientific report.