In your previous labs, the logbook has typically served as your formal summary of a particular experiment. In this course we will move you toward using a logbook more in the mode that it is used in a research setting. The formal summary of the experiments finding etc. will be presented in your formal report. The logbook will serve as your primary source of documentation of what you actually did in the lab as well as your thought process during the analysis of the data and planning the experiment.

LOGBOOK RULES:

One of the most difficult things to learn, yet one of the most important for future success in physics research, is mastering the "art" of maintaining a proper log book. You should keep a detailed log of all your activities associated with this lab. In an industrial or research setting, the logbook is essentially a legal document to be used to demonstrate that something was done at a particular time (say in support of a patent claim), and in a particular manner (in say an investigation of any anomalous result).

1. Use a bound notebook (Ampad Gold 22156, National type #43-648, or equivalent), not loose sheets of paper. Do not get the type with extra pages for carbon copies. Extra material, such as computer printout, photographs, etc., may be pasted or taped into the book.

2. Make sure your logbook has numbered pages.

3. Skip the first page or two to use for a Table of Contents, other than that never skip pages.

4. Entries must be written down chronologically, and the book must make the chronology clear. Toward this end:

· You must not leave blank pages or empty spaces other than to start a new page for each experiment, and allow room for pasting in attachments not immediately available.  If you have work to add from a previous experiment, such as to complete some analysis, enter it directly after your most recent entry in the book but indicate its connection to the earlier work with  brief notes (such as "Continued on page 57",  and “continued from page 36”).

· You must date every session, and record the time of the day for each important entry. The key is to document your actions in real time not to write polished or complete prose. Do not leave blank space to be filled in later when you have more time or think that you’ll understand it better.

5. Always write directly into your log; NEVER work on loose scraps of paper, and then copy things into the book. Even `mistakes' often turn out to be important!

6. For the same reason, do not use pencil. If you discover that something was wrong, "X" it out so that it is clearly marked as being in error, but is still legible. Never use White-out, paste over, or (worst of all) remove pages! When crossing-out something out work to make sure that the “mistake” is still legible, it may turn out to be important; you may want to read it again!

LOGBOOK GUIDELINES

Determining what to write in the notebook is largely a matter of personal taste, but the general guideline is that it must be sufficiently detailed and legible to allow you, or someone else, to use it in order to reproduce your results sometime in the (potentially distant) future. A few general additional suggestions to make it more useful for you are:

1. When you start a measurement, state briefly what its goal is -- just a few key phrases to remind yourself exactly what you will be trying to do. This provides insight into your thinking.

2. As you go along, jot down enough information to indicate what you are doing at that moment. Remember to note the times. The time between observations may be a crucial element in tracking down the origin of drifts or other changes in the apparatus that are not immediately obvious.

3. Provide diagrams (sketches, electronic schematics) of the apparatus, with complete information on settings of controls and other relevant instrumental data (model and serial numbers, calibration dates, etc.). This may include a copy of the diagram in the lab write-up, but generally that alone does not contain sufficient detail.

4. All measurements should be recorded immediately and directly. Any necessary arithmetic (to convert your numbers to other units, to average two numbers, etc.) should be done in a second step, and also recorded. Remember to record the units for dimensioned quantities, and always estimate the uncertainties in any measured quantity.

5. Any time your measurements result in a list of numbers (e.g., determining how a quantity y depends on the setting of x), you should immediately convert this information into a graph. This will not only often provide some `intuition' about their correlation, but will usually allow you to spot quickly any departure from a smooth dependence, which might indicate a problem with the equipment, an error in that single measurement, or perhaps something new and unexpected!

6. As soon as you finish collecting the data, present some preliminary conclusions: what worked, what didn't, and what else will need to be done to complete the analysis. Again, the goal here is to use the notebook to document your thought process as well as your data.

7. If you record any data electronically, write the name of the electronic data file in your logbook, and make this not easy to spot.

GRADING RUBRIC:

Lab books will be graded periodically on a 20 point scale with the above guidelines in mind. I will try to use the following rubric (if experience shows that this rubric falls short in some way, and I will inform you of any changes).

1. (2 points) Background information and Description of goals: Does the entry for an experiment start with a summary of what you learned prior to starting the lab (from reading the writeup)? Does your running description include enough information about the physics to motivate what you are doing at any particular point in the experiment?

2. (4 points) Experimental apparatus and procedures: Have you provided sufficient detail in your description of the experiment and apparatus (model numbers, instrument settings, etc.) to allow another person to reproduce your results or track down the source of any problems with the results (or for you to recover from an unintentional change)? Especially, have you included important details that are not contained within the writeup? This includes not only details on the apparatus, but also descriptions of not just what you are doing but how you are doing it.

3. (2 point) Dates and times: Have you recorded the dates and times for your work appropriately? Is it clear that entries have been written chronologically?

4. (3 points) Clarity, organization and legibility: Are the entries organized, neat and legible enough for another person to understand easily what has been done, the results obtained, and the significance of those results?

5. (4 points) Data and Observations: Does the logbook present the data and observations adequately? Does it demonstrate that you are performing quality assurance checks (does the data make sense) as you go along ( e.g. drawing graphs and performing preliminary analyses as you work to catch any mistakes early)? Are graphs appropriately labeled and legible?

6. (3 points) Data analysis: Have the data been analyzed adequately and accurately (including appropriate consideration of both random and systematic uncertainties)? Are the steps you took in performing the analysis clearly documented?

7. (2 points) Thought: Does the logbook record demonstrate that you have been thinking about what you were doing? Are you drawing conclusions from your data, or are you just working like an automaton? Are you motivating your next steps and critically assessing your final results?,