Physics307L:People/Klimov/Oscilloscope
Oscilloscope Lab Summary
In this lab, I learned how to use an oscilloscope and gather useful data from it. The main overview of the lab is provided in the Lab Manual, and my procedures and other relevant data are provided in my lab notebook:
Main Data
- Fall Time= 51.20ms (cursor)
- Fall Time= 48.24ms (measured)
The first number, as noted, was obtained by using the cursor measurements. More specifically, I cropped my voltage drop, subtracted 10% of the drop from it and found, once again by cropping, the time interval during which the voltage drop took place. I was fairly confident with this measurement until I had the oscilloscope take the measurement for me, which claimed that the fall time was 48.24ms. Because of this discrepancy, I think a reasonable uncertainty in my measurement is ±3ms. I chose 3ms because this is the time difference between my measurement and the oscilloscope's measurement.
Because the image that I was working with was in fairly high-resolution, I decided to use the fall time I obtained from my cursor measurement.
- Vf=Vo·exp(-t/τ)
- τ=22.2ms
Conclusions
- In this lab, I learned a lot about the oscilloscope and how to use it. I learned how to use triggering, how to make useful measurements and how to operate the device in general. I am sure that this is a useful skill which I will continue to develop throughout the coming weeks and semesters. Unfortunately I didn't quite understand what exactly AC and DC coupling did (although Dr. Koch showed me what AC coupling was useful for). However, I am sure that this will become more clear as the semester progresses.
- I definitely didn't go outside of the standard procedure as much as I would have liked. Although I did get to try out many of the oscilloscope's functions, there are many more that I was unable to test out due to the time constraint. In fact, I never even got to the FFT section, or to the 'Other' section that came after.
