Lab Report Guide

Pedro Espino, 14 Jul 14

This guide was written with the purpose of walking you through how to write a lab report in greater detail than
I am able to give in class (due to time constraints). I will also go through my rubric and how I grade the reports, in
minimal detail.

Abstract
We can start by looking at the abstract. The abstract should include information on only three things:
What you were investigating in the experiment
How you investigated the thing in question
What you found from the investigation
Here is an example:
In this experiment, we measured the speed of light. The experiment was conducted by having a wizard
shrink us down to the size of atoms. The wizard then accelerated us to a very fast reference frame and
we were able to measure the time it took a photon to cross several distances. We found the speed of light
to be 48.65 m
, which is a 99.99% discrepancy from the accepted value of 3.0 108 m
.
s
s
Notice how little detail I gave about the experiment. Just the basics. I did not write about where the error in the
experiment came from, nor did I give specific values of the lengths I used to measure the speed of light. You should
always include your main result. If the main result is a power law, include it. If your main result was that rotational
kinetic energy was not conserved, include it.

Introduction
Now, about the introduction. There should not be any equations in the introduction. Leave all the math/ physics
for the theory part. The introduction should include two things:
The goals of the experiment
This can be thought of as the overall theme of the lab (e.g momentum conservation). You should also
include specific goals such as becoming familiar with the oscilloscopes, learning how to take data, etc. Dont write
random goals, I actively check to see if the goals match the experiment in question.
The motivation
Motivate the experiment. Why was it worth doing? Why is it important?
Here is an example:

The goal of this experiment was to investigate the speed of light and compare it to the accepted value
of 3.0 108 m
. Other goals were to become familiar with the science of wizardry. We learned how to
s
coax the wizards ego to shrink us to certain sizes and how to get him to accelerate us into the desired
reference frame.
Measuring the speed of light is an instructive experiment for a number of reasons. Primarily, it shows
us that large physical quantities can indeed be measured with a simple laboratory setup and a captive
wizard. It is also important to get an intuition for how fast light truly is.
Again, not many details, just state the goals. No math, no theory.

Theory
The theory part should be more substantial than the previous two. This is the section where all the relevant math and
derivations should be included. This part should not, however, contain any reference to data or any mention of error.
This should be thought of as what should happen in theory. Be sure to include all simplifying assumptions. Include
all relevant derivations and formulas, unless I explicitly tell you not to include it in the lab report. For example, if
you used standard deviation for the first time in lab, provide the formula you used, and explain in a few lines what
the formula means. You do not always have to provide the formula for statistical calculations if it was included in
previous lab reports. That is, if you explained standard deviation and what it means in lab report 1, and also used it
for lab report 2, you do not need to redo the derivation and explanation in lab report 2, but you should still provide
the formula. For this section, all your equations should be on their own lines and centered - make it presentable. If
you care about how the lab report looks, you can use Microsoft equation editor for those who use Word, or you can
begin learning how to typeset in LATEX(ask me if you are interested).
Here is an example:
The speed of light can be calculated starting with the simple formula
dx
v=
(1)
dt
Equating this velocity to the velocity of a photon, we get
dx
(2)
c=
dt
We can now consider an incremental change in the length and time to be given by the final values
subtracted from the initial values. That is,
dx = x = xf xi (3)
dt = t = tf ti (4)
We can now plug equations (3) and (4) into equation (2) to show that the speed of light is the distance
that a photon travels divided by the time it take to travel that distance:
x
c=
(5)
t
The value of c we expect is
c = 3 108 m
s
For this report, we will also need to show the standard deviation of our results. For a series of measurements, the standard deviation is given by the
rformula
(hRi Ri )2
= i
N
Where hRi is the average value of the quantity being measured, Ri is the value of quantity for the ith
data point, and N is the total number of data points. The standard deviation allows us to quantize how
far each data point is from the average of all data points, on average.
We will also need to look at the percent error of our main result. Percent error can be calculated using
the following formula


Exp.
%error = 1
100
Theor.
That is, we first look at the ratio of our experimental quantity to our theoretical quantity. We then
subtract that ratio from 1 and multiply by 100. The sign of the percent error tells us whether our
experimentally determined quantity was above or below the expected value. A minus sign should indicate
that it was below, whereas a plus sign should indicate that it was above.
Note here that I left my theory as general as possible. I did not calculate what my percent error was, but rather how
to calculate percent error in general. I made no reference to the data. The theory part should never have specific

calculation of variables, but instead general derivations and formulas, along with a sentence or two explaining the
derivation. If you just provide equations with little to no explanation, I will remove points. I need to see that you
understand the equations, and not just copy them from the board. And of course, if the way I explained in class did
not make sense, feel free to ask.

Procedure
In this part of the report, you should detail precisely what you (and your lab partner) did throughout the experiment.
Give specifics as to what you were setting the independent variables (e.g, mass, initial velocity, distance) to, and what
happened during your experiment. For example, if you decided to switch masses half way through the experiment,
be sure to mention it and write about how you accounted for that change. Please do not pull these straight from the
lab manual. I will know
Here is an example:
For this experiment, the procedure consisted of being shrunk down to the size of atoms. To accomplish
this, we had to give the captive wizards specific commands.
1. We began by complimenting the wizard in the following sequence:
Us: Hey, wizard, you look nice today.
Wizard: You shall not pass (lab)!
Us: That robe compliments your eyes. They look so green in this light
Wizard: Really? Thanks. OK, how can I help?
We then had the wizard shrink us down to the size of atoms and accelerate us to a reference frame
wherein we were moving at 99% the speed of light.
2. The next step was to have a single-photon light source shine a photon along a straight track.
3. We then synchronized our watches so that we would begin timing at the same time the photon source
released the photon, and stopped timing when the photon was absorbed into a piece of metal on the
opposite end of the track.
Steps 1 through 3 were repeated for a series of different track lengths. The track lengths used began
at 5.00 m and ranged to 6.10 m, where we increased the length in increments of 0.10 m between runs.
During the experiment we had to exchange our stopwatches because the batteries had run out. When we
exchanged our stopwatch, we re-synchronized our watches and re-calibrated the one-photon source.

Data
There is not much you can do wrong here. Your data tables should always have titles and units in the column
titles (this is usually the main thing students forget). Another thing to look for is to ensure that your tables are
consistently on the same page. I always receive a few lab reports where the data is cut off at some point and begins on
the other page. Take some time to format and re-size your data tables and make them presentable by including clear
demarcations between columns and rows. More importantly, always present all the data unless I tell you otherwise.
If you calculate statistical quantities such as the standard deviation and percent error for one set of data, provide
them next to the table (or under it if you prefer); just be sure to accurately label what you present. For example, if
you present the percent error in p, be sure to say
%errorp =
Here is an example:

x(m) t(s)
5.00
0.11
5.10
0.11
5.20
0.10
5.30
0.11
5.40
0.12
5.50
0.12
5.60
0.11
5.70
0.13
5.80
0.12
5.90
0.10
6.00
0.12
6.10
0.12
(x) = 1.61m

Graphs
The main problem I am seeing with graphs is again pertaining to the basics. Your graphs should have titles. All
of your axes should have labels, with units corresponding to the variable on that axis. You should always provide
the equations that are relevant to that graph. In other words, if you suspect the graph has a linear trend, provide
the linear equation for the graph. If you suspect the equation is a power law, do not simply let excel give you a
power law. What excel does is give the power law for the best fit trend line, and not for your actual data. When
you are dealing with what looks like a power law, you must linearize the data by taking the natural log of both
sides, getting a linear relation, and going through the procedure we have done time and time again. From now on, if
you have a power law trend, and you simply provide the equation that excel gives you, I will mark it as completely
wrong. Fair warning. Another big problem with the graphs is the connection of data points to one another. Your
plotted data should be a scatter plot with a fitted trendline. To do this in excel, plot your data as a scatter plot, and
then go back and fit it with either an exponential trend line (if you expect the relation to be a power law) or a linear trend line (if you expect the relation to be linear - this applies for both positive and negative slope linear relations).
Here is an example:

Graph1

Discussion
In general think of the discussion as the part where you relate the Theory part to the actual data you collected. Do
not simply provide the results and say they were more or less good. You need to discuss how you used the data you
took to get the result, and then give a scientific comparison to the theory. In general, your discussion should include
Main result presented clearly, with reference to your data/graphs
If there is a calculation involved, provide the calculation

- I do not need for you to show the calculation for statistical quantities, but you should show the calculation for linearizing power laws or exponentiating linear equations. For example,
if your linearized power law graph gave an equation y = 7.11x + 90 you should show how to get your power law from
this.
State your conclusions clearly, and always refer to data to support them.
Provide all the statistical quantities and what they mean.
Error analysis. Do not simply write there was a lot of room for human error
in this experiment, but instead state what specific sources of error there were. Moreover, and more importantly, you
must state how the error you claim is present affected your data.
The discussion part should be more substantial than the other parts. I have received reports where the discussion is
one paragraph, stating the results and claiming human error was a big part, which is unacceptable. The discussion
should be the part where you draw conclusions about the experiment, and support them with your data and graphs.
Here is an example:
The speed of light was shown to be given by equation (5). If we look at graph Distance traveled as a
Function of Time, we can see that the equation for this plot is given by
y = 48.65x 0.075
Noting that the independent variable is x and that the independent variable is t, the slope of graph 1
should be
x
=c
t
From this, we can conclude that the slope of graph 1 should be c, which gives us a value of
slope = c 48.65 m
s
This value of c gives a 99.99% error from the accepted value of 3.0 108 . This is a significant difference
which suggests sources of error that may have drastically impacted our data. One potential source
of error is the fact that we neglected relativistic effects such as length contraction and time dilation.
If an object is accelerated into a fast moving reference frame, it experiences length contraction with
respect to an object in a fixed reference frame. In our experiment, that would mean that the length the
photon traveled will not indeed be the measured lengths, but those lengths elongated to larger distances,
meaning the photon actually traveled larger distances. Time dilation is another relativistic effect that
would have impacted data. When an object is accelerated to a fast moving reference frame, it also
experiences time dilation (slower times with respect to some fixed reference frame). This would mean
that our watches were not synchronized correctly with the one-photon light source, giving smaller times
than were measured. Other sources of error were lack of synchronicity between our group and the photon
source. There is a random factor affecting the data depending on whether we began before or after
the photon source emitted the photon. Corrections to this experiment would include the considerations
of special relativity in the distances and times experienced by the photon, and the use of automated,
sensitive apparatuses, thereby bypassing the need for a captive wizard.
Notice the amount of detail I gave in the error analysis and how I referenced the graph to come to my conclusion.
One final thing: make sure you proofread your reports!

Mini Rubric
Heres what I look for in lab reports, to some extent:
Format(5 points):
-All sections in correct order?
-All sections present?
-Was the content placed in its correct section?
-Grammar...
Content(20 points):
-Were equations derived and presented in a legible manner?
-Was the physics and math explained suitably?
-Was the theory tied to experiment?
-Was reference to data/graphs made?

-Were the conclusions explained?