Main Page

MediaWiki has been installed. Welcome to the main page for the PC5214 graduate module AY2122, Sem2 Here, we leave project descriptions, literature references, and other collateral information.

Christian

You will need to create an account in class to obtain write access.

This page is currently set up, and will be explained in the first session (Location TBD) on Tue 11 Jan 2022.

Projects

Please leave a a link to your project page (or pages) here, and leave a short description what this is about.

Resources

Devices and material

Apart form all the stuff in the teaching lab, we have a few resources you may want to consider for your project

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Books:

• P.R. Bevington, D.K. Robinson: Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences, 3rd edition. McGrawHill, ISBN0-07-119926-8. A very good book containing all the questions you never allowed yourself to ask about error treatment, statistics, fitting of data to models etc.
• Horrowitz/Hill: The Art of Electronics
• C.H. Moore, C.C. Davis, M.A. Coplan: Building Scientific Apparatus. 2nd or higher edition. Perseus Books, ISBN0-201-13189-7. A very comprehensive book about many dirty details in experimental physics, and ways to get simple problems solved. Appears a bit dated, but is a good start for many experimental projects up to this day!
• Christopher C. Davis: Laser and Electro-optics. Useful as a general introduction to many contemporary aspects you come across when working with lasers, with a reasonable introduction of the theory. Very practical for optics.

Software: Some of the more common data processing tools used in experimental physics:

• Gnuplot: A free and very mature data display tool that works on just about any platform used that produces excellent publication-grade eps and pdf figures. Can be also used in scripts. Open source and completely free.
• Various Python extensions. Python is a very powerful free programming language that runs on just about any computer platform. It is open source and completely free.
• Matlab: Very common, good toolset also for formal mathematics, good graphics. Expensive. We may have a site license, but I am not sure how painful it is for us to get a license for this course. Ask me if interested.
• Mathematica: More common among theroetical physicists, very good in formal maths, now with better numerics. Graphs are ok but can be a pain to make looking good. As with Matlab, we do have a campus license but an increasingly painful licensing ritual. Ask me if interested or follow the instruction here to install the software in your desktop.
• Origin: Very widespread data processing software with a complete graphical user interface, integrates well into a Windows environment. Most likely available in your research labs, not sure if NUS has a site license.
• Labview: Many of you may have seen this in your labs, but I am not too familiar with it, and chances are it is too resource-hungry to run on the machines we have there. It keeps its promise of a fast learning curve if you want to do simple things but it can get a REAL pain if you want to do subtle things, or want to do things fast, or want to debug code. Expensive and resource-hungry, but comes with good integration of also expensive hardware. May not be worth it if you know any programming language.
• Circuit Lab: a convenient software to design and simulate electrical circuits directly at your browser. I think Flash is required. It works well in Chrome.

Acronym database

This is an attempt to clarify the countless acronyms we use in our sub-communities (follow headline link)

Gnuplot tricks

Follow the headline link for some of the random questions that came up with gnuplot.

Previous PC5214 wikis

• AY2018/19 Sem2
• AY2014/15 Sem1
• AY2013/14 Sem1
• AY2012/13 Sem1
• AY2011/12 Sem1
• AY2010/11 Sem1

Some wiki reference materials

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software. Other sources:

• MediaWiki FAQ
• Writing mathematical expressions
• Uploading images