20418 Laboratory: Fundamentals of Physics

Credits: 2 intermediate credits in Physics

Prerequisites: none

Required: At least one Physics course

Authors: Michael Gaft, Yoram Kirsh, Miron Bloch

The course aims to familiarize students with instruments and techniques used in research laboratories, to demonstrate phenomena and principles studied in theoretical courses and to illustrate the relationship between physical theory and experiments.

The course is based on laboratory experiments on solids and liquids, mechanics, direct current, magnetism, and geometrical optics. Students conduct ten laboratory experiments from the list below. In preparation for each experiment, students are required to read theoretical material, and they submit a lab report after each session. The experiments are conducted at the laboratory on the Open University campus. The course corresponds to Physics laboratory courses offered to first year Physics students in Israeli universities.

Experiments: Viscosity; Surface tension; Harmonic motion; Elasticity; Ohm’s law and Wheatstone bridge; Heat conduction; Magnetic field; The oscilloscope; Geometrical optics; Laws of mechanics.