1. Do I have to go to the lab every week?
Answer: Yes, you have to. Following the three experiments conducted in the lab every other week, you will be working on your project. If you have any question regarding the project, your assistants will be in the lab during the time slots reserved in your schedule. Even if you do not have a question, you should go to the lab during your regular lab hour to sign the attendance sheet and tell your assistant that you have no question.
2. Can I use the experimental setups in the labs?
Answer: Yes, you can use the setups in the lab. You have to make a reservation with your assistant in advance.
3. What are the available instruments in the lab?
Answer: Consult your assistant or the lab technician Sadettin Karateke to learn the instuments available in the lab.
4. Can I borrow an instrument from the lab?
Answer: No, you cannot take the instrument out of the lab.
5. Can I propose the same experiments written on the lab manual?
Answer: No, you cannot propose the same experiment written on the manual. However, you can read the manual and create a proposal based on the same principles. You can use the experimental setups to perform the proposed experiment.
6. Who can I ask for advice about my proposal?
Answer: The lab assistant and your instructor can answer your technical questions and they can give you some feed back about your proposal.
7. Where and when can I meet the assistant?
Answer: You can meet your assistant during the time slots reserved for the labs in your schedule. Since your lab assistant will be grading your project, it would be better for you to talk to her/him before submitting your proposal.
8.Can I copy and paste some text from the web or our textbook?
Answer: No, in the proposal and the final report you should write your own sentences. To learn how to avoiding plagiarism visit the web page: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/plagiarism/
9. I am thinking very hard but I cannot create a project. What can I do?
Answer: On your text book and university web pages, there are very good descriptions of experiments verifying basic physics concepts. You can visit these web pages and watch them, or go through the examples on your text book. They can give you some ideas to find a project. Be creative. For example, smart cell phone has many sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer…). These sensors are very accurate and there are very good applications written to access these sensors. Think about how you can use these sensors in measurements of physical quantities in the design of an experiment.