PHY 102L: University Physics II Lab

Course rationale

This is one of the core lab courses supplementary to the theory course PHY102 which is offered separately. The lab emphasizes psychomotor skills in collecting physical data and cognitive skills in analyzing the data to get meaningful answers. Following the theory course, the lab offers experiments in Electricity and Magnetism.

Course content

E1. Verification of Ohm’s law and the laws of series and parallel: determining a relationship between the voltage and current intensity and measuring total resistances for the two combinations. E2. Verifying Kirchhoff’s laws: designing a simple circuit with a low power supply and different resistors and proofing Kirchhoff’s laws in that circuit E3. Specific Resistance: determining the specific resistance (resistivity) of the material of a wire using a meter bridge. E4. Connecting capacitors in series and in parallel: determining the total capacitance, after connecting two capacitors in series and in parallel. E5. Voltage transformation and Current transformation: Construct simple transformers and measure their voltages and currents flowing through the coils. E6. Frequency Calibration: calibrating the frequency dial of an oscilloscope with the help of a signal generator E7. Time Constant of an RC series circuit: measuring the time constant associated with the charging and discharging of an RC series circuit. E8. Time Constant of an RC circuit using Oscilloscope: Studying the transient characteristics of an RC circuit using an oscilloscope E9: Post Office Box: determining the unknown resistance by means of a post office box. E10: Potentiometer: determining the internal resistance of a cell using a potentiometer. E11: RLC series circuit: determining the resonance frequency in a series RLC circuit.

Course objectives

  1. Connect various components in a circuit in different combinations with the power supply.
  2. Use apparatus (multimeter, galvanometer, oscilloscope, etc.) to measure electrical properties like the voltage,
    current, frequency, amplitude, etc.
  3. Demonstrate the charging and discharging process of a capacitor.
  4. Comprehend Kirchhoff’s law for a circuit containing two power supplies and many resistors.
  5. Comprehend the working principle of step-up and step-down transformers.
  6. Compute the time constant of an R-C circuit with and without using an oscilloscope.
  7. Use physical equipment to construct electric and magnetic circuits to verify electro-magnetic
    phenomenon.
  8. Calculate the resonance frequency of an R-L-C circuit with the help of an oscilloscope.
  9. Create teams and work together to perform measurements in physics and engineering.

References

  1. Physics Laboratory Manual for PHY 102 (to be provided in class).
  2. Practical Physics for Hons & Degree students by Prof. Giasuddin Ahmad Ph.D. & Md. Shahabuddin.
  3. University Physics (ed. 15) by Hugh Young and Robert Freedman.