The senior lab course 492 has two goals:

a) the students learn to work hands on with lab equipment,

b) specific selected topic in physics are studied in details.

The experiments fall into different groups:

a) fundamental experiments

b) specialized experiments.

c) experiments under development

Fundamental experiments in this course are:

1) Gravitational constant (Cavendish experiment),

2) Wave character of the electron (electron diffraction)

Specialized experiments cover the field of electro-magnetism,

idieal gas, thermodynamics, solid state physics and model physics. Some of the experiments include several fields. The experiments are:

1) Debye specific heat measurement of several metals

2) Linear chain of coupled pendulum

3) Magnetic breaking

4) Measurement of the density of gases

5) Over pressure in a soap bubble

At the present time there are two experiments under development

1. Measurement of the velocity of light by mechanical means
2. Weak localization of light

In the lab the students work in groups of two. The course consists of a) a one hour theoretical lecture on one of the topics,

b) the practical instructions of the students

c) the performance of the experiments.

The theoretical background and the instruction are also available on the web at:

http://physics1.usc.edu/Classes/492/experiments/experiments.html

In an average an experiment takes two weeks. The experimental data shall be evaluated (and plotted) right after their measurement. This is to insure that the data make sense, are taken in the appropriate range and can be used in the evaluation. If the data are flawed their measurement has to be repeated. The two students of each group take turns in the responsibility for the experiment. The student who has the responsibility writes the report.

The report should contain a brief review of the theoretical background, a description of the evaluation and tables or plots of the data where appropriate. A discussion of the results and possible errors should be included.

Midterm and final are either in the form of written exams or in the form of short talks in which the student presents one experiment and answers questions. The grades include the student's knowledge of the subject, the performance during the experiment (including the quality of the results), the report and the exams.