Here you will find information for the undergraduate physics laboratories taught at the University of Rochester Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Spring Semester labs run from January to April. There are NO labs during (highlighted green) the week of Spring Break or the study break days.  For Click HERE for  PDF file of the A/B Cycle Lab Calendar for Spring 2025.

There is a one-time lab lecture that provides statistics and error analysis material needed for lab work. Click HERE for this material file - L2C- Statistics & Error Analysis.

LAB GENERAL NOTES & BLACKBOARD ACCESS SCREENSHOTS: Click Here

Lab Week A and Lab Week B Rotations

You should have signed up for a lab section when you registered for your physics course. The lab section which you signed up for should have had "Lab A" or "Lab B" included in the title. This is the lab week which you should attend. The calendar at the top right side of this page shows which lab sessions occur on which weeks. You MUST attend the lab section for which you are registered.   Attending any other lab session without explicit permission from your lab TA and will result in an incomplete (IS) grade for that lab.   This is because each lab section can only accommodate 20 students.
 If you know you will miss a lab (illness, personal emergencies, etc.) you must make it up during the two week cycle period for that lab.   please email the lab admin as soon as possible . In the mail to the lab administrator  you must state clearly your regular lab section, the lab section you are planning to attend and the reason.  Each student can be allowed to attend only one make-up lab.   If for some reason you do not hear back,  then show up in the section marked MAKEUPS on the list of lab sections:  

Click HERE for PHY 113/121/121P Mechanics lab sections.  B&L 267
Click HERE for PHY 114  EM lab sections.  B&L 268
Click HERE for PHY 123 Modern lab sections. B&L 165

• Afternoon Labs are from 2:00PM to 4:40PM.
• Evening Labs are from 4:50PM to 7:30PM.
• Night Labs are from 7:40PM to 10:20PM
  
• Labs are held in B&L 267 (for PHY 113, 121, and 181), B&L 268 (for PHY 114, 122, 142, 182, and 184), and B&L 165 (for PHY 123 and 183).

Who to contact if you want to switch your lab section.

If your schedule changes and you need to switch to another lab section,  please contact your Lab TA- email is on lab section document & Blackboard.

Makeup Labs to Clear an Incomplete Grade from a Previous Semester

If you receive an incomplete and need to make up some of the labs in the following semester, you need to register as an Audit in PHY181 (for PHY113 and PHY121 labs), PHY182 or PHY184 (for PHY122/142 and PHY114 labs), or PHY183 (for PHY123 labs).  The prelabs and postlabs grades for students who are redoing labs in future semesters are then recorded in blackboard for PHY181, PHY182, PHY183, PHY184.  Make sure that your lab grade is recorded in blackboard.

Contents

General Info: general remarks about the labs and grading

Lab Manuals: lab manuals for all sections

FAQ: answers to frequently asked questions (read this before you email physlabs!)

A note about this webpage: it utilizes internal and external CSS (cascading style sheets). If something seems fishy, please make sure CSS options are enabled in your browser, and/or download the latest version of said browser.

General Remarks

In order to complete any of the Introductory Physics courses (PHY 113, 114, 121-123, 142, 181-184), you must complete (and pass) all five of the associated laboratory exercises. These labs provide a hands-on realization of a sample of the topics that are covered in the parent course.

Before you attend lab, you must download and print the lab manual, and complete the "prelab" section of the exercise. The prelab section will be collected at the beginning of the lab session. The worksheets in the lab manual (which you will fill out as you complete the lab) will be collected at the end of the lab session. Lab manuals may be downloaded from this website by visiting the lab manuals page.

You will need your completed prelab, a copy of the lab manual, a calculator, and a pen or pencil for each lab. You are also allowed to have your course textbook at your lab bench if you need it, but anything else (backpacks, etc.) must be put along the sides of the room or the back wall.

These laboratories can be interesting and educational if you arrive well prepared. Because your completed lab write-up is due at the end of the laboratory session, it is vital that you have read over the manual before coming to lab. If you haven't read the manual beforehand, you will lose time during the lab period that should be used for the lab itself, and may find yourself pressed for time at the end of the period.

In general, students work in small teams (two or three students) however each student must prepare their own report. It is recognized that students in a team will collectively discuss the experiment and the interpretation of the data, however students are not permitted to copy each other's write-ups.

Grading

All pre-labs and post-labs are graded by TA's according to same set of rubrics. The prelabs carry 2 points while the postlabs will be graded out of 20. Missing the lab will result  in an incomplete grade ('I') in the course. The grades for the prelabs and postlabs are recorded in blackboard. It is up to the instructors to decide how the laboratory grade will be counted toward the final course grade.

Grading Questions

Your grades will be displayed on blackboard after each lab is graded with all your lab grades to date. Please check to make sure that this is consistent with the grade on your lab report. If you are missing a grade for a lab you completed or have a question about a grade, please email your lab section TAs.

Lab Manuals

*For Additional Lab Brief Notes, see Blackboard. Please also refer to the General Lab Notes for attending your lab section.

Here you may download the lab manuals for your physics course. Please bring a printed copy with you to your lab session; the TA will not have extra copies. The prelab, the first page of the lab, will be collected/submitted at the start of the lab session. TA's will also make sure that the postlabs are blank before the experiment.

Phys 113, 121, 181: Mechanics & General Physics I

Experiment 01: Statistics	Experiment 01.pdf
Experiment 02: Acceleration of Gravity	Experiment 02.pdf
Experiment 03: Conservation of Momentum and Energy	Experiment 03.pdf
Experiment 04: Moment of Inertia and Oscillations	Experiment 04.pdf
Experiment 05: The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat	Experiment 05.pdf
Instruction Video for Mulitmeter (Exp #5)	IntroToMulti.mp4

Phys 114, 184: Electricity and Magnetism

Experiment 06: Coulomb's Law	Experiment 06.pdf
Experiment 08: Electron Beams	Experiment 08.pdf
Experiment 09: Superconductivity and Ohm's Law	Experiment 09.pdf
Instruction Video for Multimeter (Exp #9)	IntroToMulti.mp4 Lab9.mp4
Experiment 12: Geometrical Optics	Experiment 12.pdf
Experiment 13: The Wave Nature of the Electromagnetic Spectrum	Experiment 13.pdf

Phys 122, 142, 182: Electricity and Magnetism

Experiment 06: Coulomb's Law	Experiment 06.pdf
Experiment 07: Absolute Volt & Electrostatic Potential	Experiment 07.pdf
Experiment 08: Electron Beams	Experiment 08.pdf
Experiment 09: Superconductivity and Ohm's Law	Experiment 09.pdf
Instruction Video for Multimeter (Exp #9)	IntroToMulti.mp4 Lab9.mp4
Experiment 10: Electronic Circuits	Experiment 10.pdf
A Short instruction video for the oscilloscope (for Experiment 10)	Scope Primer

Phys 123, 183: Modern Physics

Experiment 11: Velocity of Waves	Experiment 11.pdf
A Short instruction video for the oscilloscope (for Experiment 11)	Scope Primer
Experiment 12: Geometrical Optics	Experiment 12.pdf
Experiment 13: The Wave Nature of the Electromagnetic Spectrum	Experiment 13.pdf
Experiment 14: The Atomic Spectrum of Hydrogen	Experiment 14.pdf
Experiment 15: The Franck Hertz Experiment	Experiment 15.pdf

Appendices

Appendix B: Error Analysis

Appendix B