physics undergraduate education

[foofighter]

i was perusing the Bulletin on the undergraduate program in physics at my university, Queens College. It seems that although mathematically intense, the labs required are light compared to say, chemistry, at least in terms of the number of lab classes needed for a degree. is this true for physics in general at the undergrad level, or is it just dependant on the particular college in question?

 

thanks

[timo]

It wouldn't be too surprising if chemicists did more labs than physicists, so I'd guess the relative numbers will be roughly the same everywhere. For the the quality and requirements of the physics labs, from own experience (having studied at two different universities) I can say that they can vary tremendously between different universities.

[CPL.Luke]

in my very limited experience the quality of the lab course depends on the creativity of whoever is put in charge of the labs. For instance back in high school the physics department (there actually was a physics department) the physics professors got very creative and while the labs were simple, they did a lot to make you think about how you would measure things and what you would need to do it etc.

 

at my cc the labs weren't worth doing, and at my university there are some decent (although very long) labs, the professor who ran them was heavily invested in making the labs interesting and worthwhile to the students.

 

personally, being a theory person the fewer labs I touch the happier I am.

[swansont]

The advanced classes in electricity and magnetism, mechanics/dynamics, and classes in quantum mechanics are likely theory and no lab. I think my only labs after my sophomore year were thermodynamics and the advanced physics lab (we had a "short term" where you took only 1 class. Lab was 8 hours a day for a month, but no homework at all) and my senior project.

[ajb]

For my undergraduate studies we had something like 4 hours of lab work a week. Then there were extended projects in the 3rd and 4th years which could involve a lot more lab work. Much more emphasis was placed on theoretical work.

 

I found it difficult to get many of the experiments working satisfactorily. I am sure that is why I went into theory/maths instead of experimental work.

[Klaynos]

We do:

 

First semester First year: 3h/week + 2h/week computing lab

 

Second semester first year and all of the second year: 6h/week + 3h/week for 2(or 1 depending on course) semesters of electronics labs + up to 2h/week computing lab

 

In these two years the experiments get harder and longer moving from each semester. With a 6week project at the end of the second year.

 

In the third (and forth if you are MPhys) we do between 9 and 12 hours per week on a specific project, if you are BSc you do 2 projects one each semester, but MPhys does one project across the two years.

 

The school says that experiments are not supposed to work first time because they are supposed to teach you how to be good experimentalists, not just the physics involved.... So you might have to repeat your experiment a few times, because half way through you realise the numbers it's giving you can't possibly be true.

 

We do no labs directly relating to our lecture courses except for electronics, but lots of the experiments in labs obviously use lots of the physics we learn in lectures....

 

When we had a chemistry department, they spent more time in labs I believe.

[5614]

I am in my first year at Imperial College London on a physics degree.

 

Terms 1& 2 is 6 hours per week (in 2x3hr sessions). At the end of term 2 and term 3 we then get a choice between lab work and a mathematical analysis course. If you chose the lab then, effectively, the 6 hours per week continues for the rest of the first year.

 

I believe it is the same in year 2, although I am not certain.

 

 

(sorry for posting in an old-ish thread!)