Lab Report Guidelines

You are expected to submit a typed report instead of the pre-made form.
1. Title Page: Put your name at the top of the page, along with your course and section number and
student id number, and the title of the lab.
List your lab partners names. Number your pages, and be sure to staple them together in the correct order
before handing in your report.
2. For the purposes of this class, a report will usually require the following sections, in this order:
(a) Abstract Give a few brief sentences on the purpose (hypothesis) of the lab.
(b) Theory Give some background information in the form of definitions of physical concepts, and any
equations used to describe those relationships. Any equation you needed to use for analysis should be
listed here.
(c) Procedure You can simply cite the lab manual as a reference for the procedure; you dont have
to re-type it all.
(d) Analysis and Results Prepare tables and graphs, of your data, and show how you calculated your
final results. You must show your work in calculations. If you have to use the same formula over and
over, it is sufficient to just give a sample calculation once. You should have been able to account for
personal errors while still in lab and eliminate them. Identify systematic errors and compensate for
them in your data. Use statistics to describe random errors, which are beyond your control. Report
results with an approximate uncertainty (i.e., 4.90.4cm) obtained via statistical methods and/or errorvii
propagation analysis. Good results in this lab generally have less than 10% error from the theoretical
value; if your error is greater than 10%, comment on why this is the case and what might be done to
reduce errors if the experiment were to be repeated. Read the information in Appendix A for more
details on error analysis and speak with your instructor.
(e) Conclusion Does your data support the initial hypothesis? Explain why or why not based on the
analysis of your data in the previous section, not what you think your instructor wants to see.
(f) Questions Most labs have some extra questions at the end to reinforce the concepts and guide
you through extra analysis. Be sure to answer these questions at the end of your report in complete

sentences, and show mathematical work when necessary.

3. Since not every experiment goes well the first time (or the time after that, or the time after that one, ...),
emphasis will be on correctness of your approach and good understanding of the scientific method rather
than perfect results. Do not worry if your data is a little off from the theoretical value. It is much much
better to have bad data and describe how you can improve your technique than it is to falsify data!! (In
fact, falsifying data can get you into severe trouble, as mentioned earlier.)
4. Note, this does not mean you can blow off the lab and your data analysis. There is a huge difference
between tried hard and got ok results and wildly inaccurate results because no effort was put in. Your
instructor knows the labs, and knows about what to expect, and can tell the difference between the two,
and you will be graded accordingly. It is your responsibility to alert your instructor to problems while you
are still in lab so that errors may be corrected before you leave.