The Good Lab Kit!

Alexander Courchene
Fall 2020

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 D/F
Sections A (90-100%) B (80-90%) C (70-80%)
(0-70%)

1. Overall Minor
Descriptive title, all group members organizational Several
Presentation and Major problems
listed with your name underlined. problems. Text is organizational
Organization Clear and concise organization, unedited. Missing issues. Text is in
with
organization.
formatting, and language. group member rough draft form.
10% names.
Cursory or
Poor understanding
2. Introduction 1-3 sentences summarizing the main missing
Not concise. Goals of the goals.
goals and how they are obtained by introduction.
unclear. Generic
10% experimentation. Copied from
statements.
Manual
Procedure is
3. Procedure A brief overview of the apparatus Procedure doesn’t Procedure
missing major
and measurements taken. Figures or cover all significant copied from
steps or has major
images are helpful. Include items or includes manual, is
errors.
modifications and revisions to the excessive length or inaccurate, or is
10% procedure. detail. missing.

4. Precautions and Generic sources of

Thoughtful description of Insufficient detail
error given with no Poorly described
Sources of Error experimental precautions required or applicability of
context (e.g. or missing
for obtaining quality data. Refer to reported
“Friction”). errors and
modifications made to the procedure. precautions and
Precautions not precautions.
10% Note sources of error. errors.
relevant.

Clear, concise equations and

Calculations mostly Major calculations
calculations. Care taken with units.
correct. missing or clearly No calculations
Averages and standard deviation
5. Data needs improved given. Data
from the mean reported as necessary.
Excessive detail or organization. reported without
Calculations repetition of similar showing work.
All essential data displayed in
calculations. Some essential
graphical or tabular format. No
Excessive raw data data missing or Major issues
Fitting excessive data given. All axes
included. plotted incorrectly. with data
labeled with units included.
presentation.
30% One of items at left More than one fit
Graphs fit with appropriate functions
poorly labeled or or equation No fitting done.
(lines or curves) with fitting
missing. missing.
parameters reported.

6. Questions Mostly correct and Incomplete Mostly incorrect

Correct and complete answers to all
complete answers answers or several or missing
questions in lab manual.
15% to questions. wrong answers. answers.

Summary of conclusions drawn with

references to values obtained.
7. Results and
Conclusion not
Discussion Discussion of: Conclusion
comprehensive. Only cursory
1) actual vs expected results inappropriate or
Missing one of the summarization.
15% 2) fitting results missing.
items at left.
3) reproducibility
4) effects from sources of
error/precautions
 Lab Report Writing Tips
Alexander Courchene
August 30, 2020

• Always include units for every quantity you put in! Saying ”the result is
m
10” is not as helpful as saying ”the result is 10 s .” Assume we are using SI
(metric) units unless stated otherwise.

• When writing your conclusions, remember these two words: concise and
precise. Basically, say exactly what you need to and nothing else. Your
statements shouldn’t be super long and rambling, but they should also be
meaningful.

Examples x = bad example, √ = good example

⇥ ”We spent a really long time because the computer kept crashing and
then I spilt co↵ee on the floor and then my dog ate my homework but
then we finally got the answer and it’s two.”

⇥ ”Our answer is two.”

⇥ ”The experiment went well/badly.”

X ”Our result is 2.3 m , which agrees with the accepted value of 2.5 m .”

X ”The ruler used could only measure to the nearest centimetre, causing
our length to have a large uncertainty. This could have caused our
calculated velocity to be larger than the accepted value.”

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• When writing an equation that have variables, always explain what the vari-
ables mean. Even if it is a standard notation (such as using F for force), you
should still explain it anyway.

Examples x = bad example, √ = good example

⇥ The distance is X = Cos(✓) + 2t2 .

X The distance is X = Cos(✓) + 2t2 , where ✓ is the angle of the projectile

and t is the time spent in the air.

• Avoid using the words ”prove” or ”disprove”. In science, we don’t actually

prove anything definitively as our theories are always being revised based on
new research. Instead, you should say that your results ”agree” or ”disagree”
with the established theory.

Examples x = bad example, √ = good example

m
⇥ We proved that the gravitational acceleration is 9.8 s2 because our value
was 9.79.

X The measured value for acceleration was 9.79 m

s2 , which agrees with the
m
accepted value of 9.8 s2 .

• SAVE EVERYTHING! Save everything and save often. This includes your
graphs, your raw data, and your lab report itself. In Capstone, you can
actually save your experiment to a file so that you can look at your graphs
and data tables later. Keep all your materials for that lab in a folder so that
they don’t get lost or mixed up.

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 Uncertainty

There are two types of numbers: exact and measured. An exact number
is extremely rare in science. An example of an exact number would be
the number of fingers on your hand. There are exactly five fingers on your
hand (if there isn’t, then pretend there is for a moment), and there is no
uncertainty about that.
Almost all of the numbers we will be encountering in lab, however, are
not exact. They are measured, and any measured value has some degree of
uncertainty to it. For example, if we measure the length of a piece of paper
to be 20.2 centimetres, there is a chance that our measurement is slightly
o↵. How do we know that the paper isn’t really 20.29353838574839475
centimetres long? There answer is that we don’t, because our ruler only
has a certain level of precision.
Precision is how much or little variation you get when you measure the
same item repeatedly with the same device. It is not the same thing as
accuracy, which is how close your results are to an accepted value.
For example, if your accepted value is 23.4 kg, and you measure the
mass of your item three times:

Accurate and Precise: 23.40 kg, 23.39 kg, 23.41 kg

Accurate but not Precise: 23.50 kg, 23.30 kg, 23.36 kg

Precise but not Accurate: 10.31 kg, 10.30 kg, 10.32 kg

Neither Accurate nor Precise: 30.33 kg, 4.45 kg, 200.2 kg

Ideally, we want our results to be both accurate and precise. What

qualifies as accurate and precise can vary a little depending on the scales of
our values (the order of magnitude). For example, if we are measuring the
radius of the Sun with a metre stick (which is impossible, but play along for
a second), then if our measurements are di↵erent by a few metres, that’s

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okay (since the radius of the Sun is around 700 million metres, one or two
metres di↵erence is basically nothing). If, however, we were measuring the
length of your bed with a metre stick (a much easier task than measuring
the Sun), and your measurements are di↵erent by a few metres, that’s a
pretty big di↵erence (most beds are only a few metres long to begin with).
So how do we find the uncertainty of our measurements? The first
way (the easy way) is when either the device has a given uncertainty
value written in the manual or you’re using a software which give you the
uncertainty. For example, when we use the fitting tool in Capstone, the
uncertainty is given in the box that appears on the graph.

The slope of the line, m, is equal to -1.48 with an uncertainty of ± 0.021.

If you’re using a particular device, the manual (or a sticker on the side
of the device) might tell you what the uncertainty of a measurement taken
with it is. If that’s the case, then great! If not, then you will have to take
a guess.
So how can you guess the uncertainty if it’s not given to you? First,
you should figure out what the smallest subdivision of the device is. Here

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are three examples:

This ruler is able to measure lengths up to the nearest millimetre.

This scale is able to measure masses up to the nearest 10th of a pound.

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 This stopwatch is able to measure time up to the nearest 100th of a second.

A good rule of thumb is to have your uncertainty be anywhere from 20

to 50 percent of the smallest subdivision you can measure with certainty.
Our ruler’s smallest subdivision is 1 millimetre, or 0.1 cm. Therefore
the uncertainty is anywhere from ± 0.02 cm to ± 0.05 cm.
Sometimes with scales, when you weigh something, the value will ap-
pear to fluctuate between di↵erent values. For example, one measurement
will be 90.1 g, another will be 90.4 g and another will be 90.2 g. In that
case, the smallest subdivision you can measure with certainty is 1 gramme.
Therefore the uncertainty is anywhere from ± 0.2 g to ± 0.5 g.
With a stopwatch, it takes a non-zero amount of time for you to realise
you should hit stop and then actually hit the stop button. Therefore,
if you are using a manual stopwatch, you probably will only be certain
about your value to the nearest second. Therefore the uncertainty would
be anywhere from ± 0.2 s to ± 0.5 s. If you are using a device which is
designed to start/stop a timer exactly when a certain event occurs, then
your uncertainty may be smaller.
It might be hard to give an exact number for the uncertainty (because

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we are uncertain about how much we are uncertain), but using common
sense is generally helpful.
The way we express uncertainty in a value is by writing ± after our
measured value, and then putting the uncertainty after it. For example, if
we measure a pen to be 14.5 cm long, we would write the measured value
as 14.5 ± 0.02 cm. Uncertainty values should never contain more than one
significant figure. Maybe you could get away with using two, but never
more than that.
One of my professors says he accidentally used one too many decimal
points in one of his uncertainties in his PhD thesis, and to this day he has
nightmares that they will find him and revoke his degree because of it.
Don’t be in this position!

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 Significant Figures (Sig Figs)

What are significant figures? Simply put, when we are talking about
a measurement, only some of the digits actually have meaning. More
significant figures indicates a more precise measurement. So how do you
know how many sig figs a number has?
Here are the rules:

1. Any non-zero number is significant.

2. A zero in between two non-zero numbers is significant. Ex: 101 or

230.003.

3. A trailing zero is significant if it is after a decimal point. Ex: 20.0

or 123.30.

4. Leading zeros are not significant. Ex: 0.0001.

5. Trailing zeros when there is not a decimal point are not significant.
Ex: 4,000.

Examples
• 20 has one significant figure.

• 20.0 has three significant figures.

• 4,000,000 has one significant figure.

• 4,000,000.0 has eight significant figures.

• 23.04 has four significant figures.

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 So how many significant figures should your measurements have? That
depends on the precision of the tool. For example, our ruler is able to
measure up to the nearest millimetre with certainty, with one more degree
of uncertainty. In total, your measurements should have no more than
two decimal points.
When you are doing calculations, you will likely be mixing together
numbers that have di↵erent numbers of significant figures. While you are
doing the calculation, you should leave all the numbers as they are. When
you are done with the calculation, how many significant figures should
your result have? The answer is it should have the same level of precision
as your least precise value. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link,
after all.
For example, if you have:

20.2 + 30.15 + 0.01 = 50.36 (1)

What should you write as your final result? 20.2 has three sig figs,
30.15 has four, but 0.01 only has one. Therefore your result should only
have one sig fig. This is where you may round the number up or down
as needed. So our final answer is 50 (no decimal point), because that has
one sig fig.

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 Uncertainty Again - Propagation

Now that we have an idea of what uncertainty is, how to find it and how
to write it, we’re going to learn one more thing: how to calculate with it.
Let’s say, for example, we are trying to calculate one quantity using
another quantity that we measured. For example, we measured the force
that an object exerts and we would like to find the mass. We have a certain
amount of uncertainty in our force measurement, and therefore our mass
measurement will also have uncertainty as well. Can’t we just carry over
our force uncertainty to the mass? NO!
Instead, we need to worry about propagation of uncertainty. This
is especially true when we have two measured values, each with their own
uncertainty.
Let’s introduce some formulas. Which you use depends on how you
are mixing the two quantities together.
If you are adding or subtracting, you use the following:
p
= a + b (2)
Where a is the error for quantity A and b is the error for quantity
B.
If you are multiplying or dividing, you use the following:
r
a b
= f ⇤ ( )2 + ( )2 (3)
A B
Where f is the calculated value ( BA ), a is the error for quantity A and
b is the error for quantity B. The result ( ) is the uncertainty of f.
Let’s do our example with force and mass. We know that force and
mass are related by Newton’s 2nd Law, F~ = m~a. If we measured our
force to be 13.3 ± 0.1 Newtons and we are assuming that the object only
experienced gravitational acceleration (so our acceleration is 9.80 sm2 ), then
we can calculate our mass to be 1.36 kilogrammes.

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 The uncertainty of our mass calculation is:
r
0.1 2 0 0.1
= 1.36 ⇤ ( ) + ( )2 = ⇤ 1.36 = 0.01 (4)
13.3 9.8 13.3
The reason our acceleration has zero uncertainty is because we weren’t
using a measured acceleration, we were using our theoretical, exact value.
Our mass is therefore 1.36 ± 0.01 kg. Remember that your uncertainty
should not exceed one (maaaaaaybe two, but that’s a BIG maybe) sig-
nificant figures. Please do not give your uncertainty with twenty decimal
points.

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 Some More Uncertainty Formulas

Addition/Subtraction
p
= a + b (5)

Multiplication/Division
r
a 2 b 2
=f⇤ ( ) +( ) (6)
A B

Exponentiation/Square Roots
a N 1
= f ⇤ N(
) (7)
A
Where N is the degree of exponentiation (so for x2, N = 2).
p
Also remember that x = x1/2.

Sine and Cosine

= Cos(A) a (8)
(for Sine)
= |Sin(A)| a (9)
(for Cosine)
Note in both of these, a needs to be in radians.

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 Standard Deviation

So what exactly is standard deviation? In essence, it is how much a set

of values deviates from the mean (average). It’s hard to go into too much
detail without getting into a bunch of statistics equations and such, so for
the sake of not confusing you, you can think of the standard deviation and
the uncertainty as being the same.
To tell whether or not a measured value agrees with an accepted value
or not, we usually use standard deviations. For example, let’s say we
measured a velocity of 1.34 ± 0.12 ms , and our accepted value is 1.38 ms .
What you should do is multiply the uncertainty (0.12) by three (0.12 * 3
= 0.36). Then you add and subtract that value from the measured value
to get the range of possible values we think our measured value could be
(1.34 - 0.36 = 0.98 and 1.34 + 0.36 = 1.70). If our accepted value falls
within these two values, then we say that our measured value is within
three standard deviations of the accepted value. To be able to
say your measured value agrees with an accepted value, you will need to
have the measured value be within either two or three standard deviations
of the accepted value.
So, what do you do if it’s not? Well, this could mean two things. The
first is that you’ve discovered some crazy new groundbreaking theory and
you should have your Nobel prize delivered to your door any day now.
The second, which is significantly more likely, is that you’ve encountered
error at some point.

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 Sources of Error

Actually, even if your measured value agreed with the accepted value, you
still will have encountered some type of error during your experiment (it
just wasn’t enough to cause your measured value to stray too far from the
accepted value). So what is error and how can we avoid it?
There are two types of error: systematic and random.
Systematic error is due to the limitations of your materials or the pro-
cedure itself. This type of error will yield values that are consistently
di↵erent from the theoretical values, but in a predictable way. For ex-
ample, if your scale is not calibrated, items that you weigh with it might
always be 0.01 g heavier than they actually are (to give one example).
To refer to our earlier terminology, these results are precise, but not
accurate.
Fixing systematic error is usually done by making sure that the tools
work properly and are calibrated correctly. This type of error can also be
prevented by creating a procedure which minimises the chances that you
encounter it.
The second type of error is random error. This type of error, as the
name suggests, is random both in where it comes from and how it a↵ects
the data. Random error is difficult to spot, and therefore difficult to get rid
of. An example may be electronic noise in a digital instrument. Random
error can’t be gotten rid of through carefully planning a procedure because
it’s always there anyway. The way we minimise their impact is through
the use of statistics. I would not worry too much about this type of error
at the moment. If we have a lab that involves using statistics to do error
analysis, it should be very clearly written in the lab manual as to how to
handle it.
The one type of error that I never, ever, ever in a million years
want to see in a lab report is human error. Human error is a polite
way to say ”I —— up the lab”. Even if you really did mess up the lab,

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you wouldn’t want to admit that in your paper. Ideally, if this were a real
research experiment, then if you messed something up you would repeat
the experiment again. Since we only have so much time (a week, tops),
we might not always gets the time to do that.
Generally, if you did the lab correctly, you won’t need to worry about
human error. Part of good experiment design is to minimise the chances
of the people performing the experiment making a mistake.

Notes

• Always include uncertainty with measured quantities when you can.

• Make sure your values have an appropriate number of significant

figures. A value you obtained with a normal metre stick, for example,
should not have twenty decimal points after it.

• Three standard deviations is the maximum leeway you should use

when determining whether your result agrees with an accepted value.
There are some places which use two instead of three. Whichever
you pick is fine, but don’t go over three.

• Do not talk about human error, whatever you do! Do, however,
discuss other sources of error as they apply to your lab.

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 Motion in One Dimension
Alexander Courchene
September 3, 2020

This is a sample lab report meant for you to get an idea of what your reports
will generally look like. I obviously didn’t answer every single one of the questions
on your lab manual (because you’re supposed to figure them out on your own), so
keep that in mind when looking at the discussion and at the results section.
Also, the length of your report may be extended by a few pages because of the
length of the tables and figures. To get the true length of your report, subtract
the pages that only contain figures or tables (and also subtract the title page). For
example, this lab report has nine pages, however five of those pages are dedicated
to the figures and tables and the title page. Therefore the actual report is really
only four pages long.

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1 Introduction
Motion in one-dimension is the simplest type of motion in physics, yet it is still
important as it provides a good foundation for the more complicated topics studied
later on. The experiment in this report concerns vertical motion (or motion in only
the y-direction). The motion of two di↵erent objects (one that experiences air
resistance and one that does not) was studied to see how the position and velocity
changed over time. This was done by recording the positions of the objects at each
frame of a pre-recorded video and plotting the position and velocity as a functions
of time.

2 Procedure
The software PASCO Capstone was used for the video analysing process. The pre-
recorded video showing the two objects being dropped was loaded into Capstone
and a piece of paper measuring 0.28 m in height was used as a reference object for
the software. The coordinate system was set so that the positive y-direction pointed
upwards. The first object was a green, rubber ball which experiences negligible air
resistance. The second object was a white, cotton ball which is heavily a↵ected
by air resistance. The objects were dropped at the same time, and the frame of
the video in which they were let go was used as the starting point of position. A
marker was placed on the object one frame at a time until just before the object
hit the ground. This process of marking the position was repeated for the other
object. The position of both objects was plotted versus time on the same graph.
The velocities of both objects were also plotted versus time.

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3 Results and Analysis

Figure 1. Vertical Position vs. Time This graph shows the position (in metres) as a function

of time (in seconds). Object 1 (the green ball) has a quadratic motion while Object 2 (the cotton

ball) has a linear motion. The value A represents the acceleration of Object 1 and the value m

represents the velocity of Object 2.

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Figure 2. Vertical Velocity vs. Time This graph shows the velocity (in metres per second) as

a function of time (in seconds). Object 1 (the green ball) has a linear motion while Object 2 (the

cotton ball) has a near-constant motion.

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 Table 1: Position and Velocity of Object 1

Time (s) Y-Position (m) Y-Velocity ( ms )

5.067 1.88 -0.92
5.100 1.86 -1.25
5.133 1.82 -1.61
5.167 1.78 -1.94
5.200 1.72 -2.21
5.233 1.65 -2.56
5.267 1.57 -2.90
5.300 1.48 -3.21
5.333 1.38 -3.56
5.367 1.26 -4.02
5.400 1.14 -4.31
5.433 1.00 -4.67
5.467 0.85 -5.19
5.500 0.68 -5.47

This table shows the vertical position and velocity of Object 1 at each of the listed times. The

velocity values are negative because the coordinate system has the positive y-direction pointing

upwards and the ball is moving downwards.

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Table 2: Position and Velocity of Object 2

Time (s) Y-Position (m) Y-Velocity ( ms )

5.067 0.54 -0.66
5.100 0.55 -1.05
5.133 0.55 -1.00
5.167 0.55 -1.02
5.200 0.55 -1.05
5.233 0.56 -1.30
5.267 0.56 -1.32
5.300 0.57 -1.25
5.333 0.57 -1.30
5.367 0.58 -1.27
5.400 0.59 -1.35
5.433 0.60 -1.30
5.467 0.61 -1.27
5.500 0.61 -1.35
5.533 0.62 -1.40
5.567 0.63 -1.38
5.600 0.64 -1.40
5.633 0.64 -1.35
5.667 0.65 -1.38
5.700 0.65 -1.40
5.733 0.66 -1.35
5.767 0.65 -1.43
5.800 0.65 -1.45
5.833 0.66 -1.45
5.867 0.67 -1.43
5.900 0.67 -1.45

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 Time (s) Y-Position (m) Y-Velocity ( ms )
5.933 0.68 -1.40
5.967 0.68 -1.38
6.000 0.69 -1.45
6.033 0.69 -1.45
6.067 0.70 -1.53
6.100 0.71 -1.61

This table shows the vertical position and velocity of Object 2 at each of the listed times. The

velocity values are negative because the coordinate system has the positive y-direction pointing

upwards and the ball is moving downwards.

The definition of average velocity is the change in position over the change in
time:

y y2 y1
Vy = = (1)
t t2 t1
The definition of average acceleration is the change in velocity over the change
in time:

y Vy2 Vy1
Ay = = (2)
t t2 t1
The slope of a line is defined as the rise over the run, or the change in the y-axis
over the change in the x-axis. From this definition, we can see that the velocity
is the slope of the position’s line and the acceleration is the slope of the velocity’s
line.
Looking at Figure 1, we can conclude that the average velocity of Object 2 is
m
1.48 ± 0.021 s.

The trajectory of Object 1 is not linear, and instead it is quadratic. What this
means is that a slope cannot be obtained like it would be obtained for a linear

7
function. Instead what the quadratic fit function of Capstone is doing is fitting
the points to a quadratic equation At2 + Bt + C. Recalling the one-dimensional
kinematic equation for vertical motion with no air resistance:

1
y(t) = gt2 + v0 t + y0 (3)
2
Where t is the time, v0 is the initial velocity, y0 is the initial position and g
m
is the gravitational acceleration, which on Earth is 9.8 s2 (the value is negative
because the object accelerates toward the ground - the opposite direction of the
positive y-direction in the coordinate system used).
It is immediately apparent that the one-dimensional vertical equation of motion
is a quadratic equation. Therefore, the A value in Figure 1 represents 12 g, or one
m
half of the acceleration due to gravity (on Earth, this is 4.9 s2 ). In Figure 1, this
m
was calculated to be 5.46 ± 0.15 s2 .

In Figure 2, the velocity vs. time graphs for both objects are linear, so a slope
can be found for both. For Object 1, the slope of the velocity is the acceleration
m
(the change in velocity over time), which Figure 2 shows is equal to 10.0 ± 0.28 s2 .

For Object 2, the slope of the velocity is also the acceleration. Since the position
of Object 2 changed linearly over time, that suggests that the velocity does not
change very much over time. The slope of the velocity as a function of time for
m
Object 2 is 0.201 ± 0.071 s, which is close to zero (suggesting that the velocity is
close to being constant).

4 Discussion and Questions

The purpose of this experiment was to observe how the position and velocity of
two falling objects changes over time. This was done by using the video analysis
software in PASCO’s Capstone program to find the position of each object at each
frame of the video. The positions and velocities for both objects were then plotted

8
against the time.
As shown in Equations 1 and 2, the slope of y(t) and v(t) represent the ve-
locity and acceleration respectively. Using the one-dimensional vertical kinematic
equation (Equation 3), it can be seen that fitting the position vs. time function for
Object 1 (which follows Equation 3 because it does not experience air resistance)
to a quadratic fit will allow us to find a value for the acceleration due to gravity, g.
m
The accepted value for g is 9.8 s2 . The value calculated using Capstone’s
quadratic fit function is 5.46 ± 0.15 sm2 (Figure 1), which should be half of g
m
(or 4.9 s2 ) (see Equation 3). The calculated value is not within three standard
deviations of the accepted value, although it is close ( 5.46 3 ⇤ 0.15 = 5.01). The
gravitational acceleration also appears in Figure 2 as the slope of the velocity vs.
m
time graph of Object 1. The calculated value for g in Figure 2 is 10.0 ± 0.28 s2 ,

which is within three standard deviations of the accepted value.

In Figure 1, the slope of the position vs. time graph of Object 2 represents the
average velocity of Object 2. The velocity found using Capstone’s linear fit function
m
was 1.46 ± 0.021 s. The slope of the velocity vs. time graph for Object 2 is within
three standard deviations of zero. Therefore, the velocity of Object 2 remains at
a constant value for the duration of its motion (because the rate of change of the
velocity - the slope of v(t) - is zero). This can be seen both qualitatively and
quantitatively in Figure 2. This constant value is the terminal velocity, and is
m
equal to 1.46 ± 0.021 s (as seen in Figure 1).
The rate of change (slope) of the velocity vs. time graph for Object 1 is 10.0 ±
0.28. As mentioned previously, this is the acceleration of Object 1 (which is assumed
to be only under the e↵ect of gravity), which agrees with the accepted value for
the gravitational acceleration on Earth.