Universitäts-Sternwarte München

Fakultät für Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

Guidelines for your lab report

1. The lab report is an essential part of the lab. It should not just be an enumeration of results, but also briefly summarize the whole experiment in a way that would allow a fellow physicist to understand what you did and how and why you have done the experiment. Your lab report, together with the lab manual, should provide a complete description of the experiment to a third person who was not involved in your experiment.
2. As a part of the lab, the report should demonstrate to the supervisor that you have understood the experiment and its implications.
3. Do not just copy from the literature (however, you may where necessary). Explain clearly and in your own words the most important points of the experiment. Always elaborate on the logical framework of the experiment.
4. If your report contains more than 20 text pages, check whether you have copied too much from the instructions or from the literature, and see whether it is possible to trim the text. In case you have less than 8 pages, check whether you have explained enough.

Your lab report check-list:

Before handing in, check the report for intelligibility and regarding the following aspects:

1. What is the point of the experiment?
2. Introduction to the theory behind the experiment.
3. Description and explanation of the execution of the experiment.
4. Original measurement record (if applicable).
5. Citation and mentioning of all non-trivial equations used in the text.
6. Numeric results with a sensible number of digits, including results from intermediary calculations.
7. Discussion of errors; if applicable: error calculation.
8. Thorough interpretation of the results.

In some cases it may be expedient to deviate from this scheme.

Please make sure on time that you have sufficient information for doing and analyzing the experiments. If in doubt, talk to your supervisor.