Lab Guidelines

Start thinking about the lab report for the gravitational acceleration lab.  Here are the things that you will need.  You will have time in class to work on parts of this.  The lab report is an INDIVIDUAL EFFORT, though you are certainly welcome to chat with your group about things.

This report will be due next week, probably around 10/19 or 10/20.

Basic structure of a lab report:

Title - this is up to you.  I never mind clever (or punny) titles, though others may not appreciate this.

Purpose of lab - the purpose of this experiment, in your own words

Procedure - the procedure you followed when conducting your version of the experiment

Data table - don't forget units (which you should put at the top of each column, rather than with each entry)

Sample of any calculation that needs to be done, which is g in this lab - your data table will have ALL of the calculated values, but there is only need for one calculation to be shown explicitly

Percent error - between your value of g and the accepted value (9.8 m/s/s).

Graph(s), where relevant - really, this will mostly pertain to the groups who used the ticker tape timers

Conclusion - probably the biggest, most detailed part of the lab.  This should feature:

- answers to any lab questions (unless you wish to have a separate section for those)
- sources of error
- mathematical analysis, where relevant
- ways to improve the experiment
- anything interesting you learned
- problems you faced in the lab, etc.
- summary comments

I don't want to say exactly how long the conclusion should be, as every lab is different, but I would anticipate that it is at least 1-2 pages.