Experimental Definition and 494 Threads

The only information my textbook gives me is this: We classify experimental manipulations into three broad types, depending on whether they involve variations in the physical, social, or instructional features of the experimental context. Social manipulations are usually dependent on...

I'm looking for some good quality books on experimental methods, instruments, and measurements for graduate level. Do you guys have any recommendations?

Homework Statement Errors that might arise through this experiment: A puck upon a air table which makes certain dots with a specific length in between each of them for a 50 g mass and a 150 g mass, we need to find the acceleration, which i did and the coefficient of the friction that they...

For a physics project, a few friends and I got ahold of a couple of balls that would record the time of an impact. Using this, we wanted to calculate g using kinematics to see how off we would be from the expected 9.81 m/s^2. Obviously, differences in altitude, air resistance, and experimental...

One more question - I'm working on a problem in which I need to determine the values of R and p in the equation: {E_{B} = -RZ^{2}n^{p}} Where Z is 1 (we're using a hydrogen atom), and n is the principle quantum number of the electron. I know p is 2, but the point of the exercise is the...

I hope this is a coherent question: Solving the Schrödinger equation for energy eigenvalues for a harmonic oscillator leads to the ground state of the energy for a particle being ω/2. What is the experimental evidence that this is, in fact, the lowest achievable energy and that zero energy is...

Why it's not explained just by Doppler redshift caused by faster movement of those galaxies billions of years ago when that light was emitted? Would the speeds of the galaxies necessary for Doppler redshift to explain all of the observed galaxies redshift be unreasonable or is there something...

This isn't so much a H/W question, but we have 2 sets of values, T[SIZE="1"]Max and T[SIZE="1"]min. Δ is the difference between them. We are told to get Δ/2 and get the %uncertainty of this. Why do we halve Δ?

Perhaps someone may be able to suggest (Windows) software that I could use that allows me to draw experimental set-up schemes on my computer (i.e. include images such as beam splitters, wave plates, PBS’s) without much hassle? Anything that is open-source, perhaps? And easy to use? Otherwise...

Sometimes folks at forum venture the opinion that Quantum Geometry (=gravity) effects cannot be seen except at prohibitively high energies, leading them to conclude that QG research cannot reasonably expect guidance from experiment and observation. Generally speaking I think this is...

We expect the stress-energy tensor to have zero divergence, because this is required for local conservation of energy-momentum, which has been verified to high precision in laboratory and solar system experiments. The standard review article is Will, "The Confrontation between General Relativity...

In the light that QED suggests the speed of interaction is infinite, are there any experiments which makes it clear that mediating fields are retarded in classical electrodynamics ? Whereas, on the theoretical grounds the causality requires time assymetric interaction, but do we have any...

Hi, I am in my 3rd year and have General Relativity as one of my options. I'm kind of feeling the peer pressure of selecting General Relativity, but putting all the hype aside, is it really necessary to learn General Relativity for an Experimental Physicist? I have to say, maths isn't really...

Violation of Heisenberg's Measurement-Disturbance Relationship by Weak Measurements Lee A. Rozema, Ardavan Darabi, Dylan H. Mahler, Alex Hayat, Yasaman Soudagar, Aephraim M. Steinberg http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.0034 This paper says there are two forms of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle...

Hello friends, I recently, was reading all about the accelerating charges and radiation, but somehow the classical electrodynamics treatment is still inadequate, that is, the radiation reaction force(derived for oscillating charges) vanishes for uniformly accelerating charges. In this view...

hello, Thank you to understand that this is not a homework! I have to evaluate the uncertainty of a measurement but the baseline is also with uncertainty (correlation). I would like to have some ideas or suggestions on the best way to evaluate the uncertainty. Here is the problem: We...

On a scale of 1 - 10, where 10 means the journal is peer-reviewed, highly regarded, responsible and influential, and 1 means the journal is self-published junk science ... where does the Russian "Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics" (JETP) lie, in your opinion? Jeff

Homework Statement Would anyone know of a website where I can read lab reports, i.e. the abstract, discussion, results etc of physics experiments? Though non-physics experiments may be ok too. Just so I can get a feel for how they are professionally written. I've tried using a search...

hey i am from India is there any any good book dealing with problems similar to experimental part of physics olympiad which is available in india. or any site which has videos on physics experiment.

I have seen two formulas for a short dipole radiation resistance - according to one it is about 200*(l^2/λ^2) Ω, according to the second about 800*(l^2/λ^2) Ω. Which of these is correct, if any? (Let us consider a resonant short dipole, connected to proper inductance). In particular, I would...

I was wondering can one master both experimental and theoretical physics in one particular field of physics? There are past examples like Enrico Fermi,Richard Feynman etc . I want to have the fun of both. Is it possible?

Hey, My name is Mark, I am currently in grade 12. This term we have been given an open topic experimental investigation as an assignment. I have done some research of my own and found a couple of sites dedicated to giving you ideas for this kind of thing but I just really haven't found...

Hello everyone, I have been working on my extended essay (IB) in physics these past few months, and my topic is the current surge that occurs when a light bulb is first turned on, due to temperature. I have finished all the math/theoretical part for this, and long story short, as I expected...

Hi, I have numerous questions concerning experimental physics.. If you want to be an experimental physicist what can you study? I would like to study particle physics and quantum mechanics.. are they well involved? Also does anyone know if experimental physicists have a good income? what's...

I work in a nano-optics group, and need an IR thermometer with certain specifications. Online I have only come across cooking thermometers and industrial thermometers, so I need help finding one for a physics experimental lab setup. Specifications: - high accuracy, and pin-point surface...

Homework Statement So I have a set of data, velocity and time, of a falling object. So the question is: how can I get the value for the terminal speed? Homework Equations Since we're talking about terminal velocity an ecuation that descrives a Velocity vs time graph should be of the...

http://www.ua-kits.com/mems/ow_userfiles/themes/theme_image_1.jpg Actual MEMS design drawing of rotating plate with sections coated with platinum intended to rotate greater than 350,000 rpm with synchronous pulsed optical triggers. The plate and supporting substrate is mostly transparent to...

When coming into contact with a result such as a + or - b, what should one take the quantity 'b' as? Is it always the standard deviation? Or is it an arbitrary uncertainty decided by the scientist running the experiment, based on the equipment? Please help. Thanks, Andrew

I'm not sure how much background someone reading this may have so I'm going to go over it kinda thoroughly. In a turbocharged engine, when the turbo compresses air into the intake piping, it heats up and becomes less dense. If the air isn't dense, you can't put as much fuel in so you get less...

Homework Statement A spring hanging from a lab stand has an equilibrium position of 66mm. Weights are added in 50g increments from 100g upto 250g, record the spring displacement and work out the spring constant. Part 2: With each mass in turn pull them down 20mm from their equilibrium...

Theoretical, Experimental, Simulation, and... end of story? I know that this question cannot be answered with any absolute authority, but I'd still like to hear some speculation. Can there be a next frontier in the tools of science? Previously, we had experiments and theory. Later...

I would like to read the opinion of the people in this forum given that (I think) the most part of the people here is related to physics. I have been searching in the web for a list of the most influential physicists alive or more brilliant, but the lists that I have found seem to be not so...

Hi! I'm currently doing a high school course regarding career paths, and for one task I have conduct an interview with someone who's working in a desired career. I'm unable to contact a nuclear engineer or an experimental nuclear physicist in person, so I was wondering if there were any of those...

I had to do an experiment to measure the latent heat of vaporization of liquid nitrogen. This was done by placing a canister of liquid nitrogen on a scale, and inserting a piece of aluminum of known mass into the canister. Knowing the initial temperature and heat capacity of aluminum, it's...

Ok I read in a book that thermodynamics is an experimental science. What exactly does experimental science mean? Also does computational science come under experimental science or as an alternative to it?

The proportionality constant of big G (like Planck's constant) seems to suggest that gravity is a quantized 'thing'... does anyone know of any experiments (perhaps with a Watt or torsion balance) that show evidence of this?

Hello! Long time peeker, first time poster. I recently made a GR joke/brainteaser on a pop sci blog I frequent, and the tirade of nutty reactions it provoked drove me to an agitated contemplation of the matter, which gave rise to a few ideas. I was thinking that maybe a Gallileo type...

Homework Statement Determine the y intercept and slope of the linearization equation of the graph. Find an experimental equation. From this and the theoretical equation given in the introduction, determine the acceleration on the object. Context: I recorded data for the distance vs velocity...

I've been given a set of data from an experiment: x= 0, 1, 2, 5, 7, 10 Y=(3), (5), (8,7), (25,4) (40), (66,2) My mission is to come up with a function that i can use, based on these values I've been given. I've tride to LN the values so I get a straight line (Y=kx...

hi, just a simple question i have a linear graph y=mx+c lets say my y values have an uncertainty of ±1 . my x values don't have uncertainties. so what will my gradient's uncertainty be? PS: can i just use the linear least square fit function from microsoft excel? do they calculate...

Both computational and experimental physicists' jobs are to match the results proposed by the theory. Can someone explain to me how the computational physicist studies nature? (ie does physics)? Also in subjects such as computational particle physics, the only reason we need models is because...

Hello all, I am a new member here and am currently doing my PhD in nanoscience related area. My husband is a successful phd and currently in academia. I joined phd right after my masters, and hence have no industry experience. However, I am keen to enter industry after I graduate...

Hi all, I'm looking for books or papers that give a pedagogically clear and reasonably up-to-date discussion of various experimental techniques in condensed matter physics. For example, ARPES, STM, NMR, muSR, ... As I suspect may be true for many theorists, I learned what I know of...

I am currently a high school student who is very interested in all of science in general, but physics in particular is most intriguing to me. While perusing possible careers in physics, I have found that most are split into either experimental or theoretical. I was wondering if you would care to...

Hello, I was wondering if the particle lifetimes as measured by observers increases in gravitational heavier areas. Relativity seems to suggest this, and there seems to be little criticism of this concept but I couldn't find any experimental evidence supporting this. Has this ever been shown? Or...

whats the big difference to between a theoretical physicists and a experimental physicist? do they have or need different skills? would it be possible to become both?

hello everyone, I've completed a experiment regarding torsional oscillations to determin the tortional ridgity in two types of wire. The final result is about what is to be expected but I am having trouble in calculating the error in my C " torsional ridigity" value. The formula used is...

Homework Statement How does one experimentally measure an irregular object's volume given that said object floats on water? The Attempt at a Solution It seems to me that the simplest solution to this is to submerge the whole object by pressing down on it to the point that only the object...

Apart from the obvious that one has a PHD and spent more time in school. When it comes to skillsets and capabilities, can one do more than the other? What about an engineer with a phd? Perhaps my idea of what a physicist does is that they just do very abstract work, can an...

Hello, I was wondering if there was any experimental or observational evidence for neutrinos being affected by gravity. Be it through detected lensing or other means. All I could find were some papers on lensing none of which seemed to have actual results out of the error margin.