CHEMISTRY 311L SYLLABUS

TEXT - EXPERIMENTS IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, Shoemaker, Garland, & Nibler, 6th Ed. (SGN), McGraw Hill.

SAFETY GOGGLES OR GLASSES WITH SIDE-GUARDS ARE REQUIRED TO ENTER THE LABORATORY

LABORATORY NOTEBOOK A bound notebook is required a spiral bound notebook with quadrille ruled pages of 8 1/2 x 11 is of some advantage since rough graphs can be conveniently made in it during an experiment. ALL ENTRIES MUST BE MADE IN INK.

LABORATORY REQUIREMENTS - With the exception of the Data Analysis Experiment, students will work in pairs performing all of the experiments during the assigned period. In all experiments each student will submit a unique report even though a pair of students performs the experiment.

Prior to performing any experiment in the laboratory each student will prepare a concise pre-lab abstract in their notebook for the laboratory instructor (or TA) to approve and initial. This pre-lab will be graded and is a short summary of what is to be done in the laboratory. It MUST include a step by step list of operations to be performed, measurements to be taken and what data is to be collected. Students presenting unsatisfactory pre-labs will not be allowed to continue with the experiment until appropriate adjustments have been made. After approval, these sections must be photocopied and submitted with the report. Students will record all their data in their laboratory notebook (no loose papers) prior to leaving the laboratory. It is always a good idea to evaluate your data before leaving the lab to be sure it makes sense. When appropriate, try a sample calculation in your notebook to confirm your data before you leave the laboratory. The instructor (or TA) will initial each page of the notebook after the experiment is complete and all of the data recorded.T hese pages must also be photocopied and submitted with the final report.

Your grade will be derived from your laboratory reports and a final written examination according to the following grading scheme:

IMPORTANT: Preparation for your final exam begins from day 1! You must take an active role in every experiment and be fluent in the principles of data/error analysis and proper presentation of your results and analyses (both in tables and graphs). The final exam will be comprehensive and will test your applied knowledge of test and measurement equipment. You will also be expected to understand the operating principles of the equipment and experimental set-ups.

REPORT FORMAT-

Title page/abstract: (10 pts) a 100-150 word summary of the experiment. It should include a brief explanation of the goal of the experiment, the procedure used and the important conclusions drawn from your data.

Introduction/Theory: (15 pts) a description of the aim of your experiment and explanation of the background that supports what you plan to do. You should include a discussion of any assumptions you have to make to obtain information from the data you collect (i.e. If we assume the gas behaves ideally, then.....). Any equations you use to analyze your data should be included in this section. The equations and must be numbered and set apart from the text for clarity. Example:

Procedure: (5 pts) a brief description of what you did. Do not give back the word for word procedure that you were given. Instead, in your own words, give a short description of the procedure followed and refer to the handout/text (i.e. The procedure used has been published elsewhere^(ref), briefly, a glass bulb with a pressure transducer attached was....). You should only go into detail if you deviate from the handout/text procedure. Notice, this is a little different than SGN.

Results: (20 pts) a list or table of results with short explanation about where the data comes from. Anything that was necessary for subsequent data analysis should be included in this section. Also, all figures must be clearly numbered and have a figure caption. In your text, you must talk about and “around” all tables of data. You should not have any figures or tables that are not discussed or referred to in your text. All other data or sample calculations etc. should be in an appendix (see below; Notebook pages). Long lists of digitized numbers are usually not needed. A rule of thumb- if you refer directly to the data in your report the data should be in the results section. Tables must be clearly organized and have a title and number (i.e. Table II, Rates of Decay of......). Since this is a Physical Chemistry laboratory designed to obtain numerical results, you will be graded on the accuracy and precision of your experimental results.

Discussion: (20 pts) a complete evaluation of you data with error limits is expected. If you are trying to fit your data to a model, critically evaluate how well the model seems to fit your data. Do not claim operator malfunction or poor equipment or phase of the moon as a source of error, sloppy work is never rewarded. You should evaluate your data with all sources of error in mind and discuss what they may do to your conclusions. Most of the figures (graphs, schemes and diagrams) will be found in this section. Each figure must be set apart from the text, numbered and have a caption (Figure 2. A plot of.....). The caption tells the bare minimum necessary to understand what the figure shows. Leave the discussion of the figures in the text.Notice that when a caption is used a title is not! The figures must be a half page or full page in size and should be on the bottom of the page that first refers to the figure (or the top of the next page). Graphs must have both axes labeled and be clearly displayed.Data points should include error bars when needed. If you fit your data to a model function the displayed line does not contain “data” points.

Remember, this is a discussion of your data. Show that you fully understand what you measured and how to interpret it. If you made any assumptions in your theory, are they justified in light of your findings?

Conclusions: (5 pts) exactly what you conclude from your discussion section. You should not present any new arguments in this section that you did not fully support and discuss earlier in your report.

References: (5 pts) Use American Chemical Society format for your references (See the “ACS Style Guide” or any ACS journal article for examples).

Pre-lab abstract: (10 pts) photocopy of the hand-written pre-lab abstract. Note that if pre-lab questions and “points for discussion” are given in the handouts or laboratory discussion, they must be answered prior to arriving in lab.If they are not, points will be deducted accordingly.

Notebook pages and Sample calculations. (10 pts) Photocopies of your neatly hand-written lab notes that include all the data you collected and any sample calculations needed. Points will be deducted if notebooks are not written as indicated in your "Laboratory Notebook" handout.

Unless otherwise specified, the completed laboratory reports will be collected at the beginning of your lab section two weeks after the day your experiment is assigned. This deadline will be modified somewhat for the last experiment to accommodate finals week. It is your responsibility to insure that you hand in your lab reports on time. Late reports are subject to a 10% per day penalty.