Experiments in Modern Physics

The present text is an outgrowth of such a laboratory course given by the author at the University of Rochester between 1959 and 1963. It consisted of a one-year course with two 3-hour meetings in the laboratory and two 1-hour lecture meetings weekly; the students had access to the laboratory at all times and, in general, worked during hours of their own choice well in excess of the scheduled periods. The students worked in pairs, which in most cases provides a highly motivating and successful relationship.
The material included in this course was selected from those experiments in atomic and nuclear physics that have laid the foundation and provided the evidence for modern quantum theory. The experiments were set up in such a fashion that they could be completed in a two- to four-week period of normal work taking into account the other demands on the student's time.


Key Features
* Teaches students the methods and procedures of experimental physics at an advanced level; and
offers the confidence in their abilities to measure physical entities and relationships between them
* Familiarizes students with modern research equipment and its use
* Makes students aware of the most basic techniques presently used in widely varying fields of physics
* Convinces students that the material they studied in their lecture courses can indeed be tested experimentally, and gives students the satisfaction of doing so themselves