Physics307L F09:People/Klimov/Oscilloscope

=Oscilloscope Lab Summary= In this lab, I learned how to use an oscilloscope and how to obtain useful information from it. The main overview of the lab is provided in the Lab Manual. My procedure, thoughts, and data are provided in my lab notebook:
 * Lab Manual
 * Lab Notebook Entry

Summary of Data
The first measurement, was obtained by using the oscilloscope's 'cursor' and the second was obtained using the 'measure' feature. Because of the discrepancy between my cursor measurement and the oscilloscope's built in measurement, I think a reasonable uncertainty is ±3ms for the 'measure' time and ±5ms in the 'cursor' time -- I am not as certain in my cursor measurement. However, if I were to repeat the lab, I would take more measurements so that I could reduce my experimental uncertainty and use error analysis techniques. The time that I decided to use in calculating the time constant, τ, was the oscilloscope's 'measure' measurement:
 * Fall Time= 51.20±5ms (cursor)
 * Fall Time= 48.24±3ms(measure)
 * Vf=Vo·exp(-t/τ), Vf/Vo=0.1, t=48.24ms
 * τ=20.95ms

Conclusions

 * In this lab, I learned how to use the oscilloscope and some of its features. In particular, I learned how to use triggering, I learned about AC coupling, how to view and manipulate an input signal, and how to make useful measurements. I am sure that these are useful skills which I will continue to develop throughout the semester.
 * I definitely didn't go outside of the standard procedure as much as I would have liked. Although I did get to try out many of the oscilloscope's features, there are many more that I was unable to test out due to the time constraint. In fact, I never even got to the FFT section, or to the 'Other' section that came after.
 * To make the lab better, it might be a good idea to give students an opportunity to get started on the very first day of lab so that they have more time to mess around with the device.
 * Steve Koch 11:08, 15 September 2008 (EDT): Great idea! I've made note of it for next year: User:Steven J. Koch/307L ideas/O-scope on first day