HOW TO WORK IN THE LAB:

Please read the following instructions carefully:

I. Please bring all the essential stationary (including calculator) with you to lab to finish
the lab report.
II. If you feel that your lab partner is not participating in the experiment, please let the
Tas/Evaluator know. The partner is not supposed to just copy the data without
participating in the experiment.
III. Please note that you must analyse the results and see if they are reasonable. In case
your results are not acceptable (check standard values and maximum possible error to
decide that), you must repeat the measurement to check if you made a mistake or
there is a fault with the setup.
IV. In case you believe there is a problem with the setup, please contact the technical staff
of the lab and get it fixed before you repeat the measurement.
V. In case you have finished the report before 13:00 hrs, you are NOT ALLOWED to
leave early. Every experiment has some extra aims, please ask technical staff to
provide you with necessary material to perform those. Please utilize the lab-time to
obtain maximum first-hand experience.
VI. TAs/Lab-staff will mark the end of your report when you submit the lab-book. You
are NOT ALLOWED to modify the report afterwards.
VII. Please put your best effort to perform the experiment and learn the concepts of related
physics. During the viva if the instructor feels that the student has not put satisfactory
effort on performing the experiment or to understand the concepts, the instructor
might ask the student to repeat the experiment or to appear for viva again.
VIII. Please interact with the evaluators freely and discuss the physics of the experiments
whenever you need.
IX. On your scheduled turn, please come prepared for the viva. Viva, as you must
already know, involves questions about the setups and the physics of the experiments
performed. As you may feel, viva doesn’t really have a well defined syllabus and that
is the fun of it. Every experiment involves large variety of equipment and it is a real
test of curiosity of the students.
X. There are several standard books of optics, mechanics, electricity and magnetism etc.
available in the central library. Feel free to browse and find a suitable one.
HOW TO PREAPARE LAB-REPORT:
The report for a particular experiment should consist of following:
1. Aim of the experiment.
2. Apparatus used (Schematic diagrams or ray diagrams, if any, should be made properly)
3. Theory (only the Formulae used with a clear description of the symbols). For electrical
experiments, relevant circuits should also be made.
4. Observation tables (Verified). SOME READINGS OF EVERY TABLE OF THE EXPERIMENT
MUST BE VERIFIED BY THE TAs/ LAB-STAFF. It is student’s responsibility to get the readings
verified by recording them in the presence of a TA or Lab-staff.
5. Data analysis (along with the hand-made graph plots, if any). The points in the graph plot
and corresponding table should have one to one correspondence. No reading of the table
should be excluded from graph.
6. Error analysis: Calculate the Maximum possible error and NOT the percentage error.
(i) See next page for help.
(ii) Also, see https://owncloud.iitd.ac.in/nextcloud/index.php/s/Y5gHnsrkLkBZCgx
also for reference. You may also ask us for any clarifications required.
Error analysis for Optics and General lab Experiment-5 is given separately in the link for the
video demonstration and manual.
7. Results: Be careful about significant digits while reporting the results.
See
https://owncloud.iitd.ac.in/nextcloud/index.php/s/Y5gHnsrkLkBZCgx
for reference.
8. Precautions and discussions. (Only the significant/relevant ones faced during the
experiment)

You do not need to ask for instructions for every small detail. We
encourage you to use your good reason and judgement.