Laboratory notebook skills

Keeping a record of what you found, how you did it and what you think.

Introduction: Why do we need lab books?

An essential part of experimental science is a well maintained lab book which records all
your work. It is a place for you to record your data and the procedure you undertook. It is the
place to write down all your ideas: from the scientific background for carrying out the work to
the analysis and interpretation of the data. It is the place where you can make notes and attach
documents about your findings, even if, at the time, you think they are unimportant. In essence
it contains all the evidence for your findings and your logical deductions.

The lab book contains the evidence used to tell everyone what you’ve been doing. After
performing an experiment a physicist often has to write reports, publish papers, give conference
talks, prepare posters and explain to colleagues what they have done. These events could occur
months after the experiment was conducted and a good lab book ensures that they can clearly
recall their results, methods and report their findings more easily.

The lab book is evidence of good laboratory practice. Experiments can take months to
complete and it may be necessary for you to prove to your employer (or lab demonstrator...) that
you are competent and making progress. A good lab book ensures that your
boss/colleagues/demonstrators can clearly follow your procedures and understand your logic.

The lab book is evidence! There is a lot of importance associated with being the first to make a
discovery or new procedure. Lab books are legal documents that are used in patent applications
and establishing intellectual property rights. It is also important for an employer to monitor
your work on a project. In both these cases a good lab book is essential to prove that the work
was done, when and by whom.

The lab book is a resource. Your work may be a small part of a large research project that
contains lots of experiments. Since all your work and notes are in a single lab book, you can
immediately access the strange instructions about equipment, the results from last week’s
preliminary test and the mistakes you made last time. A lab book can be used by people taking
over your work or indeed can be invaluable if you are a new researcher on a project.

The lab book is NOT a copy of the experimental script. The lab book must be a full record of
the experiment: Do not copy out all the script and similarly don’t write “Task 1: 100 ± 1 kΩ”
without explaining what it refers to. There are some things in the script that you will need in
your lab book e.g. a quick sketch of the circuit or equipment or a description of the symbols in
equations. But many of the notes you will make are an enhancement of the script.

The Level 1 Lab book is a bound A4 notebook. Your lab book and its contents has to survive
the year. Make sure you get hold of a notebook with ruled pages that cannot fall out and use ink
so it is a permanent record. Given the importance of the information, make sure it is all
glued/taped/stapled/welded into your lab book.

It is therefore essential to keep a lab book such that the information is easily accessible,
reliable, complete and robust.
Content: What should go in and what do I need?
This list is by no means comprehensive, but here are a few things to start you off.

The title, date and your lab partner. Knowing when you did a piece of work can help you
track down badly named Excel files. If all else fails and you have your lab partner’s name, you
can ask them for the data.

Start with a statement about what you are trying to find out and why. Write a few brief lines
at the start of each experiment to explain what you are aiming to achieve and its relevance to the
real world. You will also have a preliminary task to do, so explain its relevance to that week’s lab
session. Both of these should done this BEFORE the experiment session.

Take note of what you used: Take down the make/manufacturer of the equipment and their
tolerance (uncertainty). (See page 5 of Measurements and their uncertainties by Hughes and
Hase (2010) for help with this.) Remember to include the numerical values of any
components of the experiment eg: capacitors in circuits, dimensions of semiconductors,
wavelength of light. References (not wiki!) to any known physical quantities or equations
used e.g. “Coulomb’s Law (from page 716 of Young and Freedman, University Physics, 12th ed)
are especially useful.

Make sure you note down any non-standard procedures. It’s pretty obvious that to use a
multimeter you have to switch it on, but can you remember what settings you need? What about
the tricks to aligning a light source by moving lenses? Record your method and any
experimental decisions you may make along the way.

Tables of data are easy to follow; provided you’ve labelled the columns. Remember to head
each column with the name and symbol of the quantity, its unit and an estimate the uncertainty
in the measuring device.

Record all your measurements directly and don’t cut corners. Remember you need all the
information you can get. For example if you measure seven periods of a sine wave to have
duration of 14 ms, you should record this directly in your book. Do not be tempted to simply
write “period = 2 ms”.

Make a note of the Excel filename in your lab book. By using an Excel spreadsheet, you can
also print out a chart and paste it into your lab book.

Graphs:
Page 53 of Measurements and their uncertainties by Hughes and Hase – (2010) contains a
general checklist for graph plotting for lab books. Here’s two key ideas:

i) ...should be drawn in Excel, printed out and stuck securely into your lab book.
Ensure that the parameter you varied is on the horizontal axis (abscissa) and the one you
measured is on the vertical (ordinate). Choose the scales on the axes so that you can see any
features in the data clearly (e.g. try to limit the white space on your image). Glue and tape are
provided in each lab session, so stick your graph in (or it won’t be marked).

ii)... are not just pretty pictures: comment on them! Add a descriptive title to your graph
and label the axes with words and units. Circle rogue points, explain how they arose and
describe the shape of the graph. If you have fitted your data using LINEST then state clearly that
you have used the method of least squares.
Write down your analysis method: It is so much easier to do the mathematical calculation of
experimental uncertainties in Excel than to repeat the maths on your calculator. However, make
sure you have a record of the procedure you followed so that you can explain it later. Or more
importantly, work out what you did wrong.

Quote your final result, with its uncertainty. You should always adhere to the 5 golden rules
of quoting a result: you need the mean, uncertainty, the uncertainty rounded to the appropriate
number of significant figure, the mean rounded to the appropriate decimal place, and a unit.
Highlight your result in some way so you can find it later.

Put some Physics in it! Comment on what your work means in relation to your experiment and
the real physical world. The tasks in the lab script have a purpose, and the conclusion you come
to might influence the rest of the experiment. For example, in Skills Circuits 1, you calculated the
resistance of the wires used in the circuit, and found it to be much smaller than the uncertainty
of the measurement of the resistor. Consequently you are justified in ignoring the resistance of
the leads. Conclusions such as these that you come to while performing an experiment should
be written clearly in your book.

Review your work. At the end of the experiment you should reflect on the success (or not) of
your endeavours. When you measure a quantity that has a previously known value you should
comment on the agreement between your measurement, and its associated uncertainty, and the
accepted value. Was the agreement excellent, good or poor? Why might there have been a
disagreement? Comment on the success of your practice, could you improve your methodology
or equipment choices? These reflections should be in your lab book.

Keeping it clear: How do I do all that and an experiment?

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is a well-known saying. A simple, clear diagram is
often better than a wordy description.

Break your experiment up into small sections. In many cases, your laboratory session is
already broken up into different measurements. These are natural breaks. Make sure you treat
them all equally in that they will all need a background, notes on procedure, data, analysis and
comments on your findings.

Keep your records for one section together and don’t squeeze too much on one page. You
will open your lab book in two months time to write your first report and you will need to access
your information easily. Neatness is less of an issue if the book is clearly laid out and you’ve
made brief self-explanatory comments. Ensure data has headings and units.

Made a mistake? Just cross it out. Making mistakes is perfectly normal and if you discover a
mistake in your lab book just cross out the original entry, and insert the new information.
Explain clearly why the data were crossed out (maybe the oscilloscope was not calibrated or you
forgot to switch the power source on?). Do not use correcting fluid such as Tipex! In some
countries lab books can be used as legal documents and used as evidence in court in issues of
patent rights, for example. A lab book where entries are corrected with the original entries
deleted with Tipex is not admissible.

Use standard form for your values. In tables and graphs it is very frustrating to read numbers
such as 0.000000567 Volts, or 123400 s. 5.67 10-7 volts and 1.23400 105 s , respectively, are
much easier to write and interpret.
Things to avoid: What is really unhelpful?
Vague captions and labels cause confusion. A label such as V/V on a graph for Ohm's law is not very
instructive. A caption such as Voltage/Volts, or Potential difference/Volts will be easier to interpret
when reading through the book. V is also used for volume, velocity, so chooses a label that is obvious,
and define it clearly. Similarly "V against I" is not a suitable title for a graph. "A plot of potential
difference across a 100 kΩ resistor as a function of the current through it to verify Ohm's law" is far
more instructive.

Unfinished sentences and incomplete information are frustrat....

The figure on the right is a typical oscilloscope trace. A student sketches it and writes in his book:
"Task 2: The period of the wave is 2.0 ± 0.1 divisions."
Many weeks later, this student cannot even tell you
which of the two waves the information relates to, let
alone what a division represents!

An improved description would include

a title to explain what the waves represent (Sketch to
show the time response of an a.c. circuit.)
labels on the waves and axes (Top wave: power source,
bottom wave: through resistor)
the oscilloscope time-base setting and voltage settings
(division size = 2 ms, 2.5 V),
how the peak-to-peak separation measured (with the
zero crossings).
why the zero crossings was chosen (zero crossings are better defined and it is therefore better/easier
to measure between them. )
the experimental procedure (4 whole waves were measured and then divided by 4)
AND the period and its uncertainty.

Lab book check list:

Make sure your lab book has these BEFORE you have it marked
1) Title
2) Date
3) Name of lab partner
4) Aims/background
5) Method & explanation of experimental decisions
6) Sketch of experimental equipment
7) Table of data & column headings
8) Graph of data
(i) attached
(ii) title, axes labels/captions & comments
9) Numerical results with their uncertainty
10)Comments on the physics
11)Conclusions
12)Review of your work

Think –use ink & make tasks to be marked obvious