Introduction:

This is the main page for the Physics 133 for Fall’11.  This course is mandatory (but not a co-requisite) for Engineering and Physical Science Majors who are taking Physics 131 at Stony Brook.

The list of experiments to be performed during this semester  & write-up describing the experiments are linked from this web page. It is your responsibility to

read and understand the experimental procedure and idea behind the lab BEFORE you come to the Laboratory.

All Lab experiments are mandatory. If you miss a lab for medical or some other extreme and compelling reason, please produce appropriate documentation to me or your Lab TA, and arrange with your TA do the Lab in the appropriate Make Up Lab week.  One missing lab for extreme reasons, will already reduce your grade significantly, and two or more missing labs will result in an automatic failure in this course.

Grades in this course will be based on two things:

1. 1)An interview by the Lab TA in each of your Laboratory Sessions
   

2. 2)The evaluation of Lab Reports 3, 6 and 8 by the Lab TA. The other lab reports will NOT be graded but will be reviewed and commented up on by the Lab TAs.
   

The grade in this course will depend entirely on the interviews and your lab reports. No separate exams will be held.

The Lab reports 1,2, 4, 5 & 7 although not graded, will serve as practice for writing lab reports. The TAs will give the students constructive criticism and feedback of them so as to achieve the highest possible grade in Labs 3, 6 and 8. Not writing the non-graded lab reports will be counted as a “negative” in the final analyses of grades.

Update: January 3, 2012: The grades are on SOLAR as of TODAY.

The grade in this course was calculated using the following method:

1. 1)Input on cumulative grade from the Teaching Assistants was requested.
   

2. 2)Since different TAs have very different averages for their sections, they have to be scaled to get a common average. Those who are “easy” and give high grades were scaled “down”, and those who were “strict” were scaled “up” to that common average.
   

3. 3)We also looked at your cumulative score without the scale mentioned above
   

4. 4)We picked up whichever was HIGHER between the procedure 2 and 3 before we finalized your grade.
   

Thus effectively:

5. 5)The top ~20% of the class got an A, the next ~10% got a A-, the next ~10% got a B+, ....  and so on. The bottom ~5% of the class got an F or W (for those who withdrew).
   

Click here for Lab Sections Numbers, their times and the Corresponding Graduate Teaching Assistants