Title first word starts with a capital

Your name and (if joint) partner name

Your student number
School of Physics and Astronomy
The University of Manchester
First/Second/Third Year Laboratory Report
Sept 2011
For an individual report:
This experiment was performed in collaboration with partner name.

Abstract
Insert your abstract here. You can just click here and enter text. Remember to delete all
this original text when you finish. The abstract should be about 50 - 200 words. Do not
change the fonts or format of this Title Page. Abstracts are important because they set the
tone for the rest of the document.

1. Introduction
This document serves several purposes.
a) It is a template that defines our House Style. Edit it to produce your report.
b) It contains examples on the use of Microsoft Word (for Windows or Mac).
c) It contains instructions, advice and guidance on writing lab reports.
You are expected to use this template (and hence Microsoft Word) for your reports and are
advised to print it out for reference, and to read it carefully. The markers will expect to
see your reports in this style and will not mark you down for style if you follow it. You
should write your report by editing a copy of this document. Its a good idea to keep an
unchanged copy for reference, (make it read-only and, for example, call it original). Do
not change the style, i.e. the fonts, spacing, layout etc. Remember to delete all the
original text of this document when you finish!
2. House Style and Using this Template
This template specifies, by example, the House Style for School of Physics and
Astronomy Laboratory Reports. It saves you work because you do not have to invent
your own. It specifies the format, styles and layout. These include: margin sizes, line
spacing, fonts for headings and body text, how to make a reference etc. None of these
should be changed. Notice it is (nearly) all in one font. There is no underlining.
The idea is to make the report look like an article in a scientific journal. In the real world,
when you write an article for a journal, the style is rigidly specified, giving the journal a
look that people come to recognise. Here we insist that you follow the House Style of the
teaching laboratories of the School of Physics and Astronomy. Thus your reports will
look professional and you wont waste time wondering what font etc to use. This should
enable you to concentrate on the content, which after all is the most important aspect.
Using this template is easy. You simply open it with Word for Windows and edit it. Click
on the Title and replace it with yours. Click on Headings and on the main body and
replace them with your text. You can Copy and Paste features like Greek letters,
subscripts, equations and so on. At the end make sure you delete all the material of the
original document. This should leave your report in the required House Style and looking
very professional.
The House Style deliberately has a rather wide margin on the right. This is to leave space
for copious comments from markers. Space is also left between sections for comments.
Microsoft Word is not strictly a typesetting program (unlike LaTex) and doesnt handle
white space very well, but there are a couple of things you can do to improve the look of
the final report. Always use two spaces after a full stop (ask any trained typist and they
will tell you they do this automatically). Use a nonprinting character between numbers
and their units (see Section 9.2. below). Turn on Show all nonprinting characters (the button
has the symbol ). This will allow you to see where all your spaces are. Fully justify the
text.
In using this document it might help to have a printed version to hand. It is also useful to
have an unedited version open in a second Word window so that it easy to:

a) refer to it;
b) search through it for keywords, for instance, caption;
c) copy symbols, equations, style for references etc.
3. The Aim of a Scientific Report
Remember, the basic aim of the report is to communicate your results to the scientific
world and to convince the reader (often a sceptical critical reader) that s/he should believe
your results. Of course this includes your claimed accuracy. Make sure you put into
practice the error analysis from PHYS10181B. Your result may be a numerical value (for
instance the acceleration due to gravity) or it may be observation of a physical
phenomenon (for instance the form of the diffraction pattern produced when light passes
through a slit). Also remember that the key to good communication is to keep things
simple; write short sentences and, where there is a choice, use simple words everyone
understands rather than long ones that you hope might impress the marker. There should
be around 1500 words of text in a report.
4. Structure of a Lab Report and Headings
Your lab report is a scientific paper and should consist of the Title Page (see below) and
the main body of the report. The latter is sub-divided into sections with headings and
possibly occasionally sub-sections and sub-headings. The format of the headings is given
by the examples in this document. Traditionally the headings might be:- Introduction,
Experimental method, Theory, Results, Discussion, Summary/Conclusion(s) and
References, but you can choose more appropriate headings if you wish.

5. The Title Page

The layout of the Title Page is fixed by the House Style. It consists of the Title, Author(s),
Institution, Function, Date, (partner, if appropriate) and the Abstract. The spacing and
font sizes are specified by the first page of this template.
5.1. The Title
This should be short and informative. Capitalise the first letter of the first word only.
Avoid abbreviations and jargon.
5.2. About Abstracts
Every report must have an abstract. It should be about 50 to 200 words. It should clearly,
concisely and precisely state what the report is about, the experimental technique used,
the final results and the claimed accuracy. Give a single result for a quantity and its
uncertainty so that it can be quoted. Try to avoid using references in the abstract, but if
you do use them make sure the reference appears at the end of the abstract and not at the
end of the report. Avoid equations as far as is sensible. Avoid using symbols, so that you
dont waste space defining them. Dont use tables or graphics.

The abstract has to stand alone. The idea is that someone can read it, and then decide
whether or not to read the report itself. The next section is an example of a good abstract.
5.3. Example of a Good Abstract
The acceleration due to gravity (at Manchester) was determined using a Katers
pendulum. The pendulum used was a rigid pendulum with two parallel knife-edges that
defined the axes of rotation and its length. The final result was 9.814 0.002 ms-2. The
accuracy was limited by the measurement of the length of the pendulum.
6. Scientific Style
Scientific papers are written in a particular style. This is characterised by extreme clarity,
wording that is concise and precise and by the complete absence of verbiage (otherwise
known as waffle). Scientists are by nature cautious they dont make unwarranted
claims. A scientific paper has to stand on its content and scientific merit and the approach
is the antithesis of the hype, spin and attention seeking that are typical of the media and
advertising.
It is usually best to use short sentences as this aids clarity. Use the past tense to describe
what you did and use the present tense to describe ongoing situations (such as theory).
Avoid the future tense, unless you really mean it. Make use of both the passive voice (e.g.
measurements were made ) and the active voice (we concluded ). Both are fine and
use them as needed.
The emphasis in a report is on the scientific result and not the particular individuals, so
avoid excessive use of I or we. The occasional use of the impersonal we is
acceptable, e.g. We can see from Fig. 3.. This document itself contains very few.
Of course, every part of the text must be written in grammatically correct English
sentences and there should be no spelling mistakes.
Here are some more points. These are largely based on observation of the strengths and
weaknesses of student reports in the past few years.

Make sure there is no repetition. This contrasts with this template that deliberately
contains many repetitions, but then its not a scientific paper.

Do not give instructions. The last sentence is an instruction. Instructions might be

appropriate in the lab script or in this document, but not in a report.

Avoid detailed arithmetical or algebraic calculations. Just give, say, the

measurements, the results and how to get to the results. Rely on the reader being a
physicist who can check the working if needed.

Avoid jargon and abbreviations.

Make sure that the text is in sentences and that you havent lapsed into notes.

It is not usual to ask questions, as it is attention seeking.

Read your report critically and also try and persuade someone else to read it.
Delete all words that are not actually needed. For instance, delete the word very
in the phrase a very strong magnetic field.

Do not include subjective comments, for instance that the results could have been
better or that you didnt enjoy the experiment. These can be put in the section on
Personal Comments at the end of your report and on the Blue Opinion Cards in the
laboratories.

Do not include the Aims and Objectives of the experiment as listed on the lab
script. These relate to teaching outcomes and are not relevant for the report.

Avoid repeating material from the lab script.

Consider when words should begin with a capital letter. Sentences begin with a
capital, as do proper names such as Compton scattering and Youngs modulus.
This also includes reference to figures, equations and other sections of the report.
So you would use see Figure 1, as can be seen from Equation 2 or discussed
in the Introduction for example. However, elements, for instance iron and argon,
are not so honoured.

Avoid the concepts of can, could, possible. Be specific and say what you
did.

7. The Introduction
This section should introduce the reader to the report. A brief statement of why the topic
is of interest might be useful. Any historical background should be kept very short as,
while it may be interesting, it doesnt contribute to the main aim of the report. You might
end with a brief summary of what you are going to include in each of the following
sections. The introduction is likely to contain the bulk of references.
8. Organisation and Content
Remember that the reader is probably not familiar with the experiment. Your target reader
should be another undergraduate physicist whose knowledge of the experiment is what
yours was when you started it. So introduce the reader to the experiment. You cant talk
about the mirror until youve told the reader that there is a mirror. Referring to a figure
showing the apparatus is often useful.
A common problem is how to report an experiment that consisted of several parts. For
instance you might have used a Michelson interferometer to measure the wavelength of a
spectral line and then measured the splitting of a line and then studied the bandwidth of a
filter. It is really tedious to be presented with the theory (for each part) then the apparatus
(for each part) then the measurements (for each part) then the results (for each part) then
the errors (for each part) then the summary (for each part). It is far better to consider all
aspects (theory, apparatus, measurements, accuracy, results, etc) of part one, (the
wavelength) then all aspects of part two (the splitting) then part three.

9. Some Technical Details

9.1. Headings
Notice the format and font of the headings and sub-headings in this document. In the
jargon of Word for Windows; the style of the main text is Body Text and the style of the
headings is Heading 1. Sub-headings are not in bold face. Notice the numbering scheme
and the position of full stops.
9.2. Units
Of course all quantities must have their units stated, as in:- 9.81 ms2. Notice that there is
a space before the units and the units are in Roman font. To avoid the number and the
units ending up on separate lines use a non-printing character as the space; this is shiftcrtl-space in Word.
9.3. Errors
It is important, indeed essential, to discuss the errors i.e. the accuracy or uncertainties of
the measurements and results. In most cases, there is no need to have a section dedicated
to errors. It is far better to present statements about accuracy as you go along. For
instance, state the accuracy of the equipment when you describe it, give the uncertainty of
the measurements when you describe them and give the accuracy of results as they are
presented. Points on graphs should always be plotted with error bars. If these are smaller
than the data points then say so in the caption.
You have a delicate balance to strike. You can assume that the reader knows the basics of
error propagation so there is no need to spell out the formulae and arithmetical
calculations in detail, yet you need to convince a sceptical reader that you have done
things properly. For instance it is adequate, and indeed good style, to say:- The current
and voltage were measured to an accuracy of 1.5% and 2.5% respectively. Combining in
quadrature, this gives the power, P=IV, to 2.9%. Any competent physicist can check that
1.5 and 2.5 do indeed combine in quadrature to give 2.9. However, leaving out the
equation in examples similar to the one above would not be appropriate, since the reader
might not know that P=IV (!) is the correct equation. It is usually important to explain
what is the dominant source of uncertainty in the final result.
A one-page summary and a full write up of PHYS10181B, Computing and Data Analysis,
is available on Teachweb. Remember to give numerical values to a sensible number of
significant figures. An abstract claiming that your result for the acceleration due to
gravity was 9.8 0.015643 would loose marks (not only because there are too many
significant figures in the uncertainty, but there are also no units).
9.4. Characters and symbols
Greek letters and other special characters can be inserted into a word document by using
Character Map (they are in the font Symbol) or you can use Insert, Symbol. For
convenience several commonly required symbols are listed here so that you can simply
Copy and Paste them as needed.

(You should enter normal text past the place for the symbol and then go back and paste it
in. Otherwise you may find youve switched to Symbols and new text is Greek!).
Superscripts and subscripts can be made by typing the character, highlighting it, selecting
Format, Font, then tick superscript or subscript.
You can Copy and Paste via the clip board. You can also select text, click on it, and drag it
to the new place. Holding down Ctrl does instead a Copy and Paste.
Here are some characters etc that might be useful for copying.
Some Greek characters:x2x
m
Some useful symbols:
Some useful expressions:4.2 106 and (12.1 1.5) 108 and Tnitrogen .
Note that a minus sign is not the same as a hyphen -.

9.5. Equations
All equations must be part of a grammatically correct English sentence. If an equation
needs to be referred to then it can be numbered as shown. Otherwise leave it
unnumbered. The following examples show how to neatly define symbols as you go
along and avoid an ugly list.
It is probably safer to use Equation Editor for all equations and avoid typing directly from
the keyboard. This will ensure that the correct fonts are always used. Here are some
examples:The amplitude as a function of time is given by A Ao sin tA, where is the angular
frequency.
The period, T, of a simple pendulum depends on its length, l, and is given by:
T 2 l g ,

(1)

where g is the acceleration due to gravity.

The gravitational force, F, between two point objects, of mass M1 and M2 is given by
F G M1M 2 / R2 ,

(2)

where R is the distance between them.

Notice that symbols, A, t, T, l, g, F, G, M, R, are in italic font, but Greek letters and
superscripts and subscripts are in Roman. So its a bit tedious to type properly. However,
this is the usual convention and is the default in Equation Editor.
Functions such as log and sin are in Roman font.

See Section 10.4 for advice on how to get the special characters and symbols.
Equation Editor includes all sorts of goodies, including integral signs:

x 2 dx

2
3

a3 ,

and exponentials: e E / kT .

As you can see, Equation Editor is quite powerful, but it takes some getting used to. A
good way to learn is to experiment with the options. Also, make use of colleagues and let
them learn from you.
The default in Word is that a new line following an object (e.g. an equation) is the
beginning of a sentence and is automatically given a capital letter. To get the letter w in
lower case in the word where following Equation (2), this auto feature has been turned
off. (Go to Tools, AutoCorrect, Capitalize first letter of sentences.)
It is important that all symbols are defined, but do this only once.

9.6. About Footnotes

The best advice about footnotes is to avoid them as much as possible.
information in the text. Put references in the list of references at the end.

Put useful

9.7. About Appendices

The best advice about appendices is in general to avoid them. Lab reports are too short to
justify an appendix at the end. If some calculation or derivation or detail really is needed
and does not fit comfortably into the main text then a short appendix might be
appropriate.
10. Graphics - Tables, Diagrams, Spectra, Graphs
Graphics, tables, diagrams and graphs, etc, can be generated in several ways. You can a)
use Word itself, b) use another package and paste it in, c) scan it in from another
document and paste it in, d) draw it neatly by hand yourself and scan and paste. If you do
copy a graphic from another document, it is important that you should say in the figure
caption where it has come from, i.e. give a reference, otherwise you could be accused of
plagiarism. Note that it is conventional to label all diagrams, graphs and spectra as
figures and they should be numbered sequentially. Tables should be numbered
separately.
If possible put the graphics in suitable places in the main body of the text, just after where
they are referred to. If this is not possible put one or more at the end. It is essential that
all these graphics are numbered (as in this document) and that all of them are referred to
from the text.
Each graphic should also have a caption (see the illustrations). Captions are not merely a
title. They can be quite long and this is quite useful to help explain the details. You can
lock the caption to the graphic (to prevent splitting over a page) by selecting the graphic,
then Insert, Caption, enter your caption, OK. To make a caption; select the table itself,
Insert, Caption, type in the text. This method (usually) prevents the caption from becoming
separated from the graphic at a page break. You can click on the text in the caption and

edit it as needed. The tables are labelled: Table 1, Table 2 etc. The diagrams, graphs,
spectra etc are labelled: Fig. 1, Fig. 2, etc as in this document. The caption is in a smaller
font that the main text. It is Times New Roman 10 point (instead of 12 point). Notice that
there is a bit of white space above the graphic and below the caption.
10.1. Tables
Tables are a very useful way of presenting data, but avoid giving tables containing lots of
raw measurements. If a graph shows the data clearly there is no need to present them also
as a table. A table is often a good way of summarising the results from several different
measurements, so make good use of them. To make a table select: Table, Insert, Table,
and specify the number of rows and columns that you want. Table 1 is a simple example
of some artificially generated data. Notice that the table is numbered, referred to and that
there is a caption. The uncertainty on current and magnetic field have been omitted
here, but must be there in your version.

Table 1.
the
for
magnetic
The
measured

Current

Magnetic Field

B2

Height of meniscus

(Amps)

(Tesla)

(Tesla2)

(mm)

0.1

0.23

0.053

3.24

0.2

0.46

0.212

3.41

0.3

0.66

0.436

3.60

0.4

0.87

0.757

3.97

0.5

1.06

1.124

4.32

0.6

1.27

1.613

4.81

Height of
meniscus
different
fields.
heights,
with
a

microscope, are accurate to 0.02 mm. The calibration of the magnetic field in terms of the current is taken
from reference [1]. Notice that you can put quite a lot in a caption, so they are quite useful. Also notice the
way in which the reference is used (see Section 14).

10.2. Diagrams
You can generate drawings by (a) using a package such as Draw or Paint and pasting it in,
(b) scanning a drawing and pasting it in or (c) draw the graphic using the facilities within
Word for Windows.
Every figure must be numbered and it must be referred to from the text. Also every figure
must have a caption as illustrated in Fig 1. Note that the caption can be more than a title
and in fact can be quite long.
Fig 1 was generated using the drawing package in Word (Insert, Picture, New Drawing). You
just have to play with the line types and arrows etc. Notice there is some white space
above and below the figure. The figure is numbered and referred to from the text. There
is a caption.

laser

Fig 1. Schematic diagram of the Michelson interferometer. Mirror A is movable using a micrometer screw
gauge and a reduction mechanism. Mirror B has fine adjustments for alignment.

11. Graphs
Graphs are worth a thousand words for presenting data to a reader. We are much better at
digesting visual data than a table of numbers or a lot of detail explained in the text. So it
is rare for reports of experimental work to not include some graphs. Graphs can be
prepared by hand (not to be undervalued) and scanned in to your report, or prepared by
one of many computer packages such as Matlab [2] or Excel [3]. Remember to label the
axes and to add a caption. Remove unnecessary material such as plots of residuals, the
fitted parameters, computer instructions etc. Display only the essentials and dont distract
the reader with side issues. Remember that plotting error bars is essential and that you
should use the value of to assess whether the fit is good or not.
11.1. Matlab Least Squares Fit
This package uses an interface [4] written in the School of Physics and Astronomy so the
user need not know anything about Matlab itself. You can access this package via
Teachweb. Save the Matlab graphic as an *.eps file. In the window displaying the
graphic, File, Save as, give name of file .eps, Save. Then in Word, select the place you
want it, Insert, Picture, find the file and click Insert. You should add a sensible, informative
caption, as shown in Fig. 3. Remember that you can convey a lot of information in a
figure so dont hesitate to have an extensive caption, with all symbols defined, and with
details of any fit applied. Refer back to PHYS10181B where you learned how to use
Matlab for least-squares fits.

10

Fig 2. This is an example of a graphic from the Matlab Least Squares Fit package using the data in Table 1.
The line is a least squares fit having a 2 of 2.98 for 4 degrees of freedom. The graphic from the package
normally consists of three parts: (a) the graph as shown in this figure, (b) a graph of the deviations and (c) a
table of the fitted parameters, errors and 2. If parts (b) and (c) are not explicitly referred to in the text they
should be removed. This is done by clicking on the graphic, Format Picture, Picture and entering say 12 cm
for Crop from Bottom. (If you click on this graphic in Word you can reset it and see the original.)

11.2. Spectra
In the nuclear experiments, the data usually take the form of pulse height spectra and
these are displayed on the monitor of a PC. The spectra can be saved, printed out,
transferred to word documents etc. as required. The screen graphic includes many
commands and statistics relevant to running the pulse height analysis, however these
should not be included in a lab report. These distracting features can be removed by the
Crop command, leaving only the desired spectrum.
11.3. Data from Chart Recorders
The raw output from the chart recorder should be pasted into your Lab Notebook or kept
in a ring file allocated for lab documents (such as this one). The raw output should not be
included or appended to a lab report. If you need to present some part of the chart output
to the reader, as well you might, scan it in to a computer, (it might help to photocopy and
reduce in size first), and then insert it into your report.
12. The Discussion and Summary/Conclusions
The Discussion and Summary/Conclusion sections are often the hardest to write but
also the most important parts of the report. This is because the aim is to communicate to
the reader what you learned about physics from performing the experiment. How do the
result compare with what's already known? Do the results support the theory which you
may have described earlier in the theory section? How might the results be improved or
extended? In the Discussion you can elaborate on any technical points such as whether
11

your measurements do or do not agree with each other or, in some cases, agree with
reference-book values. Remember how to judge significance with your uncertainties, see
PHYS10181B. The Summary/Conclusions is just what it says; it collects together the
final results made in the report and draws some sensible conclusions. It should contain
nothing new! It is similar to the abstract but rather more detailed.
Dont end your report with excuses such as the results would be better if only more time
were available. Thats nearly always true. The emphasis in a report is to draw valid
conclusions from the data actually available.
13. General Appearance
Your laboratory report should have the appearance of a scientific paper from a research
journal. In practice this might not be quite possible. For instance, some of the equations
and/or diagrams may be hand drawn. Word doesnt always make a very good job of
positioning graphics. If there is insufficient room on a page it leaves the rest of the page
blank and starts the graphic on a new page. Dont waste too much time tidying this up.
14. References and Plagiarism
References serve several purposes: they acknowledge sources of information, they lend
authority to statements in the report and they tell the reader where s/he may find more
information. Using other peoples material without referencing where it came from is
plagiarism! A plagiarism check is run on each submitted report. By judicious use of
references to derivations of equations or detailed descriptions of bits of apparatus you can
even save yourself work! All reports should have some references. References consist of
two related parts, one in the text and the other at the end of the report. In the text, for
example, you may refer to a book as in [6] or [7]. You can also refer to a specific page in
a book using [6;p23] and later [6;p45]. It is allowed to refer to the lab script [1], but only
for the value of parameters built into the equipment or for information that it is impossible
to find elsewhere. If you received a relevant piece of information from a person, you can
reference and acknowledge them as in: A good technique [8] for measuring.
Complementary to what appears in the main text is the list of references that appears at
the end of the report under the heading References. Each entry in this list should be
sufficient for the reader to identify the source of information and usually should have a
name, a date, the title of the book or journal and a publisher. As an example of how to
refer to a scientific paper look at the one by Lyne and Lorimer [9]. Within this template
references are indicated by a number in square brackets and appear in full in the reference
list at the end of the document. There are other slightly different ways of using
references but use this one. The heading References does not have a number.
References to the web are contentious because, while books and journals exist in
perpetuity in libraries and can always be obtained, material on the web can be here today
and gone tomorrow. Also papers in journals are refereed and articles in books are
approved by the publishers, whereas there is often no such stamp of authority for material
on the web. However, web material can be very topical, and if you use it make sure you
note the date of access. Therefore, references in scientific papers (that should stand the
test of time) are rarely to the web.
Incidentally, the term Bibliography is used for a list of books and papers which are of
general interest and which are not referenced individually. This might be appropriate in a

12

more general article, such as a vacation essay, but its not used in scientific papers, nor in
lab reports.

15. A Final Checklist

Here is a short checklist thats worth going through when youre adding the final touches
to your report.

Delete all the original text of this document.

Does the report convince the reader?

Does it conform with the guidelines?

Check numbering of sections, figures and references.

No repetition. No unnecessary words. No ambiguities.

Have you dealt with errors adequately?

Have you done a 2

Run a Spell Checker.

Read it.

Get a friend to read it. Read someone elses.

Make a pdf file of your report and submit it to Blackboard.

submitting .docx files as blackboard may mangle them.

Avoid

16. Assessment and Feedback

16.1. Length of the Lab Report
Students often put a lot of effort into their lab reports and they are often much too long.
There should be at most about 1500 words of text. Anything over 2000 words is
excessive for an experiment that took only a few days. The whole report, including the
Title Page, the text and figures and diagrams etc, (but excluding a page of Personal
Comments) should not exceed 8 pages. This template is well over 5000 words so your
report should be less than half this. However, this template has only one table and only 3
figures, your report could well have more.
Note it is not necessary to include everything that you did. It is more important to present
some result(s) in an honest and convincing way.
16.2. Assessment
The assessment of your report will concentrate on how well it stands up as a scientific
document, and how well it communicates the results of your experiment to a reader. The
marker will try to ignore how well you actually did the experiment because this was
previously assessed in the interview. The marking schemes (including grade descriptors)
are available on Teachweb.
13

You might like to bear in mind that by far the most common comment made by markers is
that students seem to have not read the guidance and instructions. So read this advice
carefully and take note.
16.3. Late Reports
Working to a deadline is an important transferable skill. Any report handed in after the
deadline will be marked as usual (though not as a matter of urgency), but there will be
penalty. Note that a report (of adequate standard) is required, even if late, in order to
satisfy work and attendance requirements.
Acknowledgments
Any acknowledgments should be at the end of the report before the references. You might
like to thank your partner, lab technician, tutor etc. By convention there is no need to
number this section.
Id like to thank all those students whose reports I have read in recent years and thus
obtained some knowledge, albeit limited, of the difficulties of writing laboratory reports.
References
[1]
Hook, J. Low Temperature Resistance, 2nd yr lab script, Physics Dept,
Manchester Univ., 2002.
[2]

MATLAB, Version 5, The Math Works Inc, Natick, Mass 01760.

[3]

Excel, Microsoft Corporation.

[4]
Matlab Least Squares
http://teachweb.ph.man.ac.uk/.
[5]

Fit,

lsfr26.m

available

from

Teachweb,

Squires, G. L. 2001. Practical Physics, 4th Ed, Cambridge University Press.

[6]
Kaye, G. W. C. and Laby, T. H. 1995. Tables of Physical and Chemical
Constants, 16th ed., Longman.
[7]

Cunane, P. Private communication.

[8]

Lyne, A. & Lorimer, D. 1994. Nature, 369, 127

Length and Date

The following is not really part of a scientific paper, but can usefully be included in a lab
report for teaching purposes. Note to update the display of the number of words, put the
cursor on the number (it becomes highlighted in grey), and press F9. You should delete
this paragraph, leaving the length, date and time to be printed.
The number of words in this document is 0 .
This document was printed on 03/11/2002 at 09:38.

14

Personal Comments
Comments such as I enjoyed the experiment, I think this is a good experiment
because, and any such personal opinions are not part of a scientific report and
must not be included in your report.
However, you may, if you wish, place at the back of your report a separate page
entitled Personal Comments. This will not be treated as part of the scientific paper,
but as information for markers. Relevant information might be that you have been
working without a partner. You can also ask the marker for feedback on specific
points such as I was unsure about Section 3; is it too long?, I didnt know whether
or not to include xxx, etc or make any comment you like. We hope that this will
provide better feedback for you.
Of course comments can be made at any time anonymously by filling in the Blue
Comment Cards available in the laboratories.
Dr Ian Duerdoth, 2002
Updated by School of Physics and Astronomy Laboratory Committee, 2011

Comments on this Template

This template may contain bugs and weakness as well as good advice. Please send
comments and corrections to:
Dr Mark Dickinson
email:

Chairman of Laboratory Committee

mark.dickinson@manchester.ac.uk