Organiser: Andy Howes

Weighting: 15 CATS

The module builds on experience gained during the first and second year laboratories. You should work on in-house experiments and at an observatory. The work is less structured than in earlier years, more open ended and normally performed in groups of three. You are expected to take more responsibility for the planning and direction of your work than in previous years. This will prepare you for independent research within a team, and for the project work next year.

This module is available only to MPhys Physics with Astrophysics students.

Aims:
To develop the experimental skills acquired over the first two years.

Objectives:
In addition to the specific objectives of the individual experiments, at the end of the module you should have:

• Collaborative experience of progressing, and reporting on, an experimental study
• Expertise in computer controlled data acquisition and processing
• Development of experimental skills in astrophysics relevant to final year project work
• Ability to use models and simulations to study complex physical systems

Organisation:

• There are 10 scheduled sessions from 11am to 5pm. However, many of the experiments require data collection over an extended period of time, so some work outside the scheduled times is expected.
• Students will normally work in groups of three.
• You will perform 3 experiments, one of which will be a computer simulation.
• The laboratory is staffed by members of academic staff and postgraduate demonstrators. There is a constant interaction between staff and students throughout the operation of the laboratory, and also outside formally timetabled hours.
• Where possible, variations in the experiments to form them into mini projects are encouraged to add a degree of novelty to the work.
• A joint report, in the form of a publication, will be submitted from each group for each of the 3 experiments, one week after completing the experiment.
• The first two reports will normally be returned and feedback given during the laboratory session one or two weeks after submission. Feedback will be available for the third report by arrangement with the markers.

Assessment:100% assessed