ME-1

General
Introduction
•There are six mechanics experiments in total for the whole
semester.
•Each section will have one lab every two weeks.
•Students are responsible for reading the experiment
description and they ought to have an idea about the
experiment, before coming to the lab.
•The lab work is going to graded as follows;
Pop quiz: 10 points
Reports: 65 points
Evaluation quiz: 25 points

•Each group will include 2 or 3 students. Each student will

prepare a report and The reports should be completed in the lab
while doing the experiment. Reports cannot be taken home.
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
• Bridging the gap between the theoretical concepts and
real physical world.

• Measure some important physical quantities like distance,

time, current, voltage.. Etc.

• Learn some simple way to measure some important physical

parameters and verify some important laws.

• Analyzing measurments in a scientific manner.

• Developing the skill of presenting and analyzing

measurements in systematic manner.

• Developing the ability of the student to understand the

connection between the instrumentation and technique of
an experiment and its output.
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
* Each measurement carries its own error (or uncertainty). 

* The exact reading of a scale is impossible. 

* The exact measurement of any quantity is impossible.

* The error in a measurement can be either positive or negative

and can be expressed as:

Distance = 9.5 ± 0.1 cm

* The last figure given is generally the one in which there is some
uncertainty or error.
Types of Error

* Systematic Errors

* Random Errors
Systematic Errors

• They are the errors tending to be in one-direction only,

either positive or negative.

• Their usual source is the construction or calibration of the

measuring instrument.

Example:

An instrument whose zero setting is wrong

Solution:

Good calibration of the instruments

Random Errors

• They are the errors tending to be in both-direction, positive and

negative.

• These errors arise from unknown and unpredictable variations in

the experimental situation.

Examples:

• Variation due to parallax

•Mechanical vibrations in the experimental setup

Solution:

•The effect of random errors can be reduced by

improving the experimentation technique, and by
experience.

•By taking many measurements and calculating the

average of these independent measurements.
Estimating Errors

•A ruler is used in all of the mechanical experiments as

the measuring device together with a spark timer.

•For a ruler the smallest division is 1 mm or half of it

0.5mm may be taken as the error of the measurement.
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
* All the experimental measurements must be recorded with the
correct number of significant figures. Never put extra figures!
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
1. The most leftmost non-zero digit is the most significant:

152 m 1005 m 380 m

2. If there is no decimal point, the rightmost non-zero digit is

the least significant.

152 m 380 m 505 m

3.If there is a decimal point, the rightmost digit is the least
significant.

380.0 m 7.05 m 49.00 m

4.All digits between the least and the most significant figures
are also be considered to be significant.

152 m: 3 sig figs

0.021 m: 2 sig figs
380 m: 2 sig figs
380. m: 3 sig figs
380.0 m: 4 sig figs
3.05 m: 3 sig figs
Are there any differences between the below measurements?

380 m 3.8 x 102 m 3.80 x 102 m

In order to express your measurements with the correct

number of significant figures, scientific notation may be used.
CALCULATIONS WITH SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

Addition and Subtraction:

In the addition or subtraction of numerical measurements, the

result must have the same number of decimal places as that of the
measurement having the least number of decimal places.

Example:
44.2146
0.16
120.4
1.122
+_________
165.8966 ~ 165.9

•When a doubtful figure is added, subtracted, multiplied or

divided by another doubtful figure, the resultant figure is also
doubtful.
Multiplication and Division

In the multiplication or division of numerical measurements, the

result must have the same number of significant figures as that of
the measurement having the least number of significant figures.

Example:
1.231 (4 sig. fig.)
1.5 (2 sig. fig.)
X
________________
6155
1231
+_________________
1.8465 ~ 1.8
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
EXPRESSING ERROR

• Absolute Error

Q = X ± ΔX ΔX: absolute error.

• Fractional Error
Absolute Error ΔX
Fractional Error = -------------------- = -----
Measurement X
• Percentage Error

Percentage Error = Fractional error x 100%

Examples:

Distance = 25.5 ± 0.5 mm

Absolute error = 0.5 mm

Fractional error = 0.5 / 25.5 = 0.02
Percentage error = 0.02 x 100% = 2%
Remark: The number of figures in both measurement and
absolute error to the right of the decimal point must be
equal.

Examples:

25 ± 1 (correct)
13.25 ± 0.05 (correct)
25.2 ± 0.12 X (wrong)
12.5 ± 0.5 (correct)
COMBINATION OF ERRORS IN CALCULATED RESULTS

Suppose x ± Δx and y ± Δy are two measurements,

•Addition and Subtraction

If R  x  y and M  x  y what is the absolute possible error in

R and M?

# Notice that in both addition and subtraction the errors are

added.
 • Multiplication and Division

P  x. y
 x y 
P   x. y.  
 x y 

x
P
y
x  x y 
P   .  
y x y 

# Note that the term in paranthesis is the sum of the

fractional errors in x and y
Remarks :

In recording measurements,

• Always try to use absolute error to express your errors.

• Always report your numbers with the correct number of

significant figures.
What you should learn today:

* The Objectives of The General Physics Laboratory

* Experimental Errors

* Significant Figures

* Recording Measurements

* Propagation of Errors in Calculations

* Graphs
 GRAPHS

•A graph provides a visual picture of the data and form the

graph we can deduce the relationship between two related
variable physical quantities.
•In order to see the quantitative relationship between the physical quantities involved in an experiment, express your measurement of these quantities in tabular form.
A graph should be self-explanatory, and therefore it must have :

• The title of the graph on the graph paper.

(usually written like Height h versus Time t)

• The student’s and, if any, the partner’s name and experiment

date.

• Each axis labeled with the quantity plotted and its proper unit.

• The scaling so that points are distributed as widely as possible

over the area of the graph paper used to plot the graph.

• Use simple scales to make calculations straightforward (whole

number of squares represent whole unit as a scale).

• The error bars representing the uncertainty in each reading.

• The best and the worst lines should be drawn in the linear type
graphs.
 Example:

Speed, v (m/s) Time, t (sec)

1.05 ± 0.08 0.025 ± 0.005
1.20 ± 0.08 0.050 ± 0.005
1.40 ± 0.08 0.075 ± 0.005
1.62 ± 0.08 0.100 ± 0.005
How to Draw the Best and the Worst Lines

* Two linearly related quantities, x and y, have an algebraic

equation of the form:

y=mx+b (where m and b are constants)

* y versus x graph gives a straight line with slope m, which usually

corresponds to a physical quantity in our experiments.

* Since the measured points are scattered because of the error

they contain, we are required to draw a best straight line fitting to
the data points to calculate the best value of the slope m.

* In order to calculate the error in m we need a line that worst fits

to the data points.
Remarks :

• The points chosen to calculate the slope of the best

and the worst lines should not coincide with the data
points.

• The quantities Δy and Δx correspond to their physical

values independent of the scale you have chosen
rather than what you measure directly by the ruler.

• The triangles should be drawn as large as possible to

obtain a more accurate slope.

• The slopes should be expressed with their units.

 y
The slope m is expressed as; m (cm/sec)
x
Example:
Best line
Worst line
* the maximum possible absolute error in the slope is:

m  mbest  mworst

* the result should be expressed in the form,

m  m (unit)
* be careful that the number of significant figures in m and Δm
should be compatible. (not necessarily equal).
Mean :

Given a set of data corresponding to repeating a certain

measurement several times, such as measuring the time it takes
a ball to fall from a certain height. Let the readings be:

X1, X2, X3,…, Xn

We can estimate the best , or the average, of the items in the

set simply enough by adding up all the items and dividing by the
number of them. Which we call the average of our readings, or
“mean”.

n
1
x   xi
n i 1
Standard Deviation

Now, the question is, How can we estimate the error in our “mean” ?
To do that we use we use what is called the Standard Deviation.

The standard deviation is a measure of the scatter between a set

of measurements. It helps to answer questions like, "How precise
my “mean” is?"

N
1

N
 i
( x
i 1
 x ) 2

The term in brackets is called the deviation.

We report the mean with the standard deviation as the absolute
error:

Mean ± Standard deviation

The END
When we want to average a certain quantity we usually prepare a
table to help use organize our work.

The table usually looks like this:

Reading # name of the Deviations Deviations squared

measured value d = reading - mean
and units d²

n
2

Speed, v (m/s)
1.05 ± 0.08
1.20 ± 0.08
1.40 ± 0.08
1 1.62 ± 0.08

0
0 0.05 0.1
•In order to see the quantitative relationship between the physical quantities involved in an experiment, express your measurement of these
quantities in tabular form.