Welcome to Experimental Physics

From Physlab.lums.edu.pk
(Redirected from Main Page)
Jump to: navigation, search

The following are the goals of the SSE Physics Lab:

1. Preparing an institutional and national platform for student-driven experimental research in physics.
2. Indigenous development of experiments for the laboratory and demonstrations for the classroom environment.
3. Training SSE students in world class experimental physics through required and optional lab courses.
4. Sharing expertise, resources and training in physics education with sister institutions and organizations in the country and the region.

Contents

Introduction

Experimental Physics is a modern, lab-based physics course where SSE students will be exposed to a variety of techniques, concepts and skills in the experimental sciences. Students will learn about error analysis and propagation, the art of building new experiments, designing tools and setups to test hypotheses and present their results in meaningful and illustrative fashion.

The course is spread over three semesters of lab work. The course titles are: Experimental Physics I, II and III. The level of sophistication of these labs is introductory, advanced and specialized.

Important Physlab news

  • Members of the Physlab: Amrozia Shaheen, Asma Khalid, Saroosh Shabbir, Dr. Shahid Ramay, Dr. Shahid Atiq and Dr. Sabieh Anwar attend the International Scientific Spring 2010 organized by the [National Centre of Physics], Islamabad on 1-6 March 2010.
  • Dr. Sabieh Anwar starts reading group on "Quantum Magnetism" on 18 February 2010. The sessions will take place every Thursday, 3 pm in the Physlab. The text being followed is Magnetism in Condensed Matter by S. Blundell. The participants are Dr. Shahid Atiq, Dr. Shahid Ramay, Aysha Aftab, Saroosh Shabbir and Amrozia Shaheen.
  • Professor Dr. Bernhard Blumich from Aachen University, Germany visits School of Science and Engineering. He will be delivering a popular lecture on "Shrinking The MRI Machine" on Tuesday, 16 February 2010 at 9:45 am. The event was covered in the 17 February 2010 issue of [Daily Times].
  • Muhammad Affawn writes a [report on relishing ice cream] produced in the Physlab using supercool air (liquid nitrogen). (Don't attempt this on your own if you are unfamiliar with handling liquid nitrogen.)
  • Dr. Sabieh Anwar presents details of the Experimental Physics Lab at an invited lecture at the Physics Department, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. (November 2009)
  • Selected people from Physlab (Sohaib Shamim, Umer Siddiqi and Wasif Zia) helped in conducting the 3 days IEEE LUMS Matlab Workshop. (October 2009)

  • Hafsa Hassan is declared the best intern of Summers 2009. She is a physics major. She was awarded a book on astronomy.(September 2009)
  • The final report on GEM4, the summer school at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has been published in the HEC Newsletter, News and Views, July 2009 edition. (Written by Umer Hassan) (July 2009)

  • With the help of the Engineering and Safety Department, the Physlab has purchased a Lathe Machine for in-house manufacturing of various equipment for the lab. (23 June 2009)
  • The Physlab perfects the art of making cartridge heaters (10 June 2009). These heaters can be made to custom size and can be used in spot, strip and bulk heating applications.
  • The lab can now safely handle cryogenics including liquid nitrogen. Storage facilities for dry ice and liquid nitrogen are now available (May 2009).
  • The Physlab borrows an indigenously developed setup for determining the Curie point of a ferromagnetic alloy to the freshmen physics lab at the GIKI. Here is Dr. Jamil's response:

Thanks for sending the manual and handing us one complete set of experiment of determination of Curie point. FES would soon be officially acknowledging this generous assistance from SSE. The experiment have been set on display in our PH102 lab. I totally agree that we both can share our expertise in freshmen physics lab. The end beneficiary would be students of both schools. Perhaps an official visit of lab personnel on reciprocal basis in future would be more advantageous. At GIKI we are laying more emphasis on improving the exisitng lab facilities for freshmen.

  • Umer Hassan Siddiqui travels to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to participate in the Summer School: Cellular and Molecular Mechanics with a focus on Enabling Technologies (June 8 to June 19, 2009).
  • A delegation from the Institute of Space Technology (IST) comprising the Vice Chancellor, Dean of Materials Science and other faculty members visits the Physlab and expresses overwhelming interest in reproducing these experiments in the undergraduate curriculum at the IST. IST is the educational face of the country's space agency, SUPARCO.
  • Abdul Mannan successfully completes the practical course titled Computer Aided Drawing and Drafting offered by the National Institute of Design and Analysis, Lahore (April 2009).
  • Dr Jameel Nabi from GIKI visited the Physics Lab on 27 February 2009. This visit can further enhance the co-operation between the two institutes.
  • 24 A-level students from the Lahore Grammar School (LGS) visit the lab on 26 February 2009 and keenly perform our freshmen experiments.
  • A group of teachers and Ph.D. students visited the lab on 26 November 2008. The visitors came from various departments of the Punjab University, COMSATS Lahore and UET, Lahore. They saw the lab in session and observed the performance of students. They returned highly inspired!
  • Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan, Rector GIKI and Member Planning Commission, Pakistan visits the Physlab and offers valuable suggestions on improving the experiments and offers ideas for new experiments in the forthcoming years.
  • Sohaib Shamim and Wasif Zia attend seminar on National Instruments products held at Islamabad on 5 May, 2008.


List of Experiments

For a full listing of experiments, lab manuals, supplementary material, software, sample results, visit the List of Experiments page. .

Experimental Preparation

In addition to the practical sessions conducting by the SSE Physlab, we also train the students for the experimental course in the form of lectures, computer based studies, interactive discussions and demonstrator-led demonstrations. For example, prior to the Lab I course, there is a set of lectures and activities that expose the students to the concepts of:

Hunerkada

Hunerkada is a highly innovative initiative by the Physlab.

The Physlab has started presentation sessions from the members of Physlab group on Research & Development projects.For more details go to Hunerkada main page.

Hunerkada comprises a brief practical demonstration of useful lab techniques such as

  • how to insulate
  • how to measure temperature using a thermocouple
  • how to make an electric heater
  • how to safely handle liquid nitrogen
  • how to file a metal
  • how to paint a surface
  • how to drill in different materials (11 June 2009)
  • and so on.

Internship Programme

The Physlab has started a students internship programme whereas 15 interns will spend time inside the lab over the summers and help in the development of new experiments, testing and improvement of existing experiments and helping prepare the lab manuals. In the summers of 2008, we hosted interns from the Lahore American School.

Publications

  1. Umer Hassan, Shoaib Shamim and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar, “Investigating properties of white noise in the undergraduate laboratory”, Eur. J. Phys. 30, 1143-1151, 2009.
  2. Sohaib Shamim, Wasif Zia and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar,"Investigating viscous damping using a webcam", conditionally accepted by American Journal of Physics 2009.
  3. Umer Hassan and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar, “Reducing Noise by Repetition: Introduction to Signal Averaging”, accepted by Eur. J. Phys, Jan, 2010.



·

Layout and design: Ahmed Waqas Zubairi and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar

Retrieved from "http://physlab.lums.edu.pk/index.php/Welcome_to_Experimental_Physics"
Experiments & Manuals
Personal tools