Physics307L:People/Joseph/Lab5: Difference between revisions
(New page: Speed of Light My final value for the speed of light was<math>c=3.164*10^9</math>m/s with an uncertainty of <math>pm.0001 /times 10^9</math> m/s. My value was about 5% off of the accept...) |
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Speed of Light | Speed of Light | ||
My final value for the speed of light was<math>c=3.164*10^9</math>m/s with an uncertainty of <math>pm.0001 /times 10^9</math> m/s. My value was about 5% off of the accepted | My final value for the speed of light was <math>c=3.164*10^9</math>m/s with an uncertainty of <math>pm.0001 /times 10^9</math> m/s. My value was about 5% off of the accepted [http://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?c value], and my data and calculations can be found [http://openwetware.org/wiki/Physics307L:People/Joseph/Notebook/071114 here] | ||
Our error was likely from our uncertainty in whether or not the PMT was consistently recieving the same amount of light, and this uncertainty would be propagated throughout the rest of the experiment. It would be a good idea to have the PMT fixed and have the polarizer mounted in some sort of a ring that you'd be able to manipulate from outside the tube. If you had a oscilloscope right with you, one with a very high resolution, you could cut this error down dramatically. | Our error was likely from our uncertainty in whether or not the PMT was consistently recieving the same amount of light, and this uncertainty would be propagated throughout the rest of the experiment. It would be a good idea to have the PMT fixed and have the polarizer mounted in some sort of a ring that you'd be able to manipulate from outside the tube. If you had a oscilloscope right with you, one with a very high resolution, you could cut this error down dramatically. | ||
Revision as of 18:56, 8 December 2007
Speed of Light
My final value for the speed of light was [math]\displaystyle{ c=3.164*10^9 }[/math]m/s with an uncertainty of [math]\displaystyle{ pm.0001 /times 10^9 }[/math] m/s. My value was about 5% off of the accepted value, and my data and calculations can be found here
Our error was likely from our uncertainty in whether or not the PMT was consistently recieving the same amount of light, and this uncertainty would be propagated throughout the rest of the experiment. It would be a good idea to have the PMT fixed and have the polarizer mounted in some sort of a ring that you'd be able to manipulate from outside the tube. If you had a oscilloscope right with you, one with a very high resolution, you could cut this error down dramatically.
It would not have been a bad idea to make a schematic of how everything is plugged, people seemed to have trouble making this experiment easily repeatable. This lab could use some improvement, and Bradley and I had to do some acrobatic solo flying on this one, but I learned a lot and it was interesting to see how one would measure something like the speed of light.
