Welcome to FYS4180

Welcome to FYS4180: Experimental methods in physics! This course is an introduction to modern experimental methods in physics, with focus on Nobel Prize winning activities and techniques specific to Department of Physics.  It begins with description of measurement uncertainty, introduces distribution function and explains how to calculate standard error. After that, invited lectures will give overview of most exciting experimental activities in physics at University of Oslo. The final part of the course is experimental study carried out during 7 weeks (84 hours) in research laboratories at the Department of Physics. The study will result in a 10-20 pages report and a 20-30 minutes oral presentation. There is oral midterm exam with four questions following subjects of the lectures with special emphasis on statistical treatment of data, measurements uncertainty and presented experimental techniques. The exam contributes 40% to the final grade.  The report and presentation that follow research in a laboratory contribute 30% each to the final exam grade. The grade will be calculated according to general A-F requirements and formulated as ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. A compulsory part of the course is presentation of an experimental paper by every student that will be arranged during the experimental study in the groups. The content of the lectures and questions to check understanding are in the links to the right on this page. I hope you will enjoy this exciting course.