NEW APPROACH TO

PRACTICAL PHYSICS
IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS

KAYODE, JOHN S.
OLUGBARA, O.O.
UHUEGBU C.C.
BABATUNDE E.B.

Second Edition

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NEW APPROACH
 FORWARD
New approach to Practical Physics in Higher Institutions is a book

presented using a novel approach that lives after its title in all

aspects of Physics. It covers the basic Mathematics, Computer-

aided experiments, and extensive worked examples, appropriate

and well-illustrated experiments. The major fields of Physics are

covered in the book. The style of writing, the simplified

Mathematics, and error analysis make the book a must for

Advanced Level Practical Physics, First Year University Practical

Physics for all Science and Engineering based programme. It is a

book that will be very handy as a reference manual for professional

Physicist.

I therefore, recommend this book strongly as a one-stop manual

book in Physics
Signed.

Engr. Prof. T.S. Ibiyemi.

Dean, College of Science and Technology,
Covenant University, Canaan Land,
Ota, Ogun State Nigeria.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We are grateful to God Almighty for His Grace, Mercy, and Wisdom to complete this

work. Our sincere thanks go to those who have contributed in one way or the other to the

successful completion of this book particularly those who edited the book to improve its

readability.

In writing a book of this nature, many books in this field and some other colleagues in the

field would have been consulted in one way or the other; therefore we acknowledge all

the authors and thanked all for their efforts. Finally we say thank you to the reviewers

and to all prospective users of the book.

Words are not enough to express our profound gratitude.

Thanks and God bless you all.

K.J.S., O.O.O., U.C.C., B.E.B.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

FORWARD ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 11

1.1 LABORATORY GUIDE 12

1.2 GENERAL SAFETY RULES 12
1.3 PRESENTATION OF REPORT 14

CHAPTER 2: BASIC MATHMATICS IN PHYSICS

EXPERIMENTS 15

2.1.1 SETS 16
2.1.1 SET DEFINITION 16
2.1.2 SUBSETS 17
2.1.3 OPERATIONS ON SET 17
2.1.4 ORDERED PAIR AND PRODUCT SET 18
2.2 RELATIONS AND FUNCTIONS 18
2.2.1 REPRESENTATION OF FUNCTIONS 19
2.2.2 DOMAIN, CODOMAIN, AND RANGE
OF A FUNCTION 20
2.2.3 TYPES OF FUNCTIONS 21
2.2.3.1 SINGLE–VALUED AND MANY–VALUED
FUNCTIONS 22
2.2.3.2 FUNCTIONS OF MANY ARGUMENTS 22
2.2.3.3 POLYNOMIAL FUNCTIONS 23
2.2.3.4 RATIONAL FUNCTIONS 23
2.2.3.5 ALGEBRAIC FUNCTIONS 23
2.2.3.6 TRANSCEDENTAL FUNCTIONS 24
2.2.3.7 EVEN AND ODD FUNCTIONS 24
2.2.3.8 PERIODIC FUNCTIONS 25
2.2.3.9 MONOTONIC FUNCTIONS 25
2.3 INDICES AND LOGARITHM 28
2.3.1 SOME LAWS OF LOGARITHM 28
2.4 GRAPHS 29
2.4.1 RECTANGULAR CO-ORDINATES 30
2.4.2 GRADIENT OF A LINE 30
2.4.3 EQUATIONS OF A STRAIGHT LINE 32
2.4.4 PLOTTING A GRAPH 35
2.5 RANGE, MEAN AND DEVIATION 38
2.6 REGRESSION ANALYSIS 39

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CHAPTER 3: CALCULATION OF ERRORS IN PHYSICS
EXPERIMENTS 45

3.1 UNCERTAINTY AND ERROR 46

3.2 PRECISION AND ACCURACY 46
3.3 SOURCES OF UNCERTAINTY 47
3.3.1 ILLEGITIMATE ERRORS 47
3.3.2 SYSTEMIC ERRORS 47
3.3.3 RANDOM ERRORS 47
3.3.4 STANDARD ERRORS 47
3.4 ESTIMATION OF UNCERTAINTY INTERVAL 47
3.4.1 THE ESTIMATION MODEL 48
3.5 ESTIMATION OF RANDOM UNCERTAINTY 50
3.6 ESTIMATION OF STANDARD ERRORS 51
3.6.1 SUM OF SQUARE ESTIMATE 51
3.6.2 THE RANGE ESTIMATE 51
3.7 COMBINATION OF ERRORS 52
3.7.1 SUM AND DIFFERENCE 52
3.7.2 PRODUCT AND QUOTIENT 52
3.8 TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE 53
3.8.1 TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE USING
STANDARD ERROR 53
3.8.2 TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE USING T– TEST 54
3.8.3 TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE USING
PAIRED-SAMPLES TEST 54
3.9 ESTIMATION OF ERRORS OF SLOPE
AND INTERCEPT 55
3.9.1 GRAPHICAL METHOD 55
3.9.2 REGRESSION METHOD 56
3.9.3 PRESENTING RESULTS OF AN EXPERIMENT 56

CHAPTER 4: INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER TO PHYSICS

PRACTICAL 57

4.1 FEATURES OF MICROSOFT EXCEL 58

4.2 MAKING ENTRY ON EXCEL 59
4.3 EDITING AN ENTRY 60
4.3.1 REPLACEMENT 60
4.3.2 DELETION 60
4.3.3 CANCELLATION 60
4.3.4 EDIT MODE 60
4.4 FUNCTIONS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL 60
4.4.1 NESTED FUNCTIONS 61
4.4.2 BUILT IN MATHEMATICAL FUNCTIONS 62
4.4.3 CATEGORIES OF WORKSHEET FUNCTIONS 63
4.5 EXCEL FORMULAS 63
4.5.1 CONDITIONAL FORMULAS 64
4.5.2 MATRIX OPERATION 64
4.6 EXCEL COMMANDS 67
4.6.1 WORKSHEET COMMANDS 67
4.6.1.1 INSERT 67
4.6.1.2 DELETE 68

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 4.6.1.3 DELETE SHEET 68
4.6.1.4 COPY 68
4.6.1.5 MOVE 69
4.6.2 CELL FORMATTING 69
4.6.3 FILE COMMANDS 70
4.6.4 GRAPH COMMANDS 71
4.6.4.1 CREATING A GRAPH IN EXCEL 73
4.6.4.2 CALCULATIONS OF ERRORS IN SLOPE AND
INTERCEPT OF LINE GRAPH USING REGRESSION 76

CHAPTER 5: MECHANICS AND PROPERTIES OF MATTER 80

EXPERIMENT 5.1: MEASUREMENT OF LENGTH 81

5.1.1 THE VERNIER CALIPERS 81
5.1.2 THE MICROMETER SCREW GAUGE 82
5.1.2.1 CALIBRATION OF THE SCREW GAUGE 82
5.1.3 THE TRAVELING (VERNIER) MICROSCOPE 83
EXPERIMENT 5.2: MOMENT OF A FORCE ABOUT A PIVOT 86
EXPERIMENT 5.3: SURFACE TENSION 89
EXPERIMENT 5.4: VISCOSITY 93
EXPERIMENT 5.5: THE ACCELERATION DUE TO GRAVITY 97
5.5.1 THE SIMPLE PENDULUM METHOD 1 97
5.5.2 THE SIMPLE PENDULUM METHOD 2 101
5.5.3 THE SIMPLE PENDULUM METHOD 3 105
5.5.4 THE COMPOND PENDULUM 109
EXPERIMENT 5.6: HOOK’S LAW 112
EXPERIMENT 5.6.1: STATIC METHOD 112
EXPERIMENT 5.6.2: DYNAMIC METHOD 115
EXPERIMENT 5.7: MOMENT OF INERTIAL 118
5.7.1 WOODEN BAR METHOD 118
5.7.2 CYLINDRICAL ROD 1 122
5.7.3 CYLINDRICAL ROD 2 126
EXPERIMENT 5.8: YOUNG’S MODULUS OF A WOODEN BAR 129
EXPERIMENT 5.9: THE RELATIVE DENSITY OF A LIQUID 134

CHAPTER 6: HEAT AND THERMODYNAMICS 138

EXPERIMENT 6.1: SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY (SHCMB) OF
A METAL ROD 139
EXPERIMENT 6.1.1: SHCMB WITHOUT COOLING CORRECTION 139
EXPERIMENT 6.1.2: SHCMB WITH COOLING CORRECTION 141
EXPERIMENT 6.2: SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY OF A BAD
CONDUCTOR 144
EXPERIMENT 6.3: SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY OF A LIQUID
USING COOLING METHOD 147
EXPERIMENT 6.4: SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY OF A LIQUID
USING ELECTRICAL METHOD 152
EXPERIMENT 6.5: COEFFICIENT OF EXPANSION OF WATER 155
EXPERIMENT 6.6: SATURATED VAPOUR PRESSURE OF WATER
AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES 157

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CHAPTER 7: OPTICS 160
EXPERIMENT 7.1: FOCAL LENGTH OF CONVEX LENS 161

7.1.1: SIMPLE METHOD 161

7.1.2: DISPLACEMENT METHOD 162
7.1.3: VIRTUAL-IMAGE METHOD 165
EXPERIMENT 7.2: FOCAL LENGTH OF A DIVERGING LENS 168
7.2.1:VIRTUAL–IMAGE METHOD (USING CONCAVE LENS) 168
7.2.2:VIRTUAL–IMAGE METHOD (USING CONVEX LENS) 171
EXPERIMENT 7.3: REFRACTIVE INDICES OF CONVEX LENS MATERIAL
AND UNKNOWN LIQUID 174
7.3.1 REFRACTIVE INDEX (CONVEX LENS) 174
7.3.2: REFRACTIVE INDEX (UNKNOWN LIQUID) 177
EXPERIMENT 7.4: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF GLASS AND UNKNOWN
LIQUID (APPARENT DEPTH METHOD) 179
EXPERIMENT 7.4.1: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF GLASS 179
EXPERIMENT 7.4.2: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF UNKNOWN LIQUID 182
EXPERIMENT 7.5: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF A LIQUID (CONCAVE
MIRROR) 186
EXPERIMENT 7.6: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF A GLASS BLOCK 188
EXPERIMENT 7.7: REFRACTIVE INDEX OF TRIANGULAR GLASS PRISMS
AND ANGLE OF MINIMUM DEVIATION 191
EXPERIMENT 7.8: RADIUS OF CURVATURE (CONVEX MIRROR) 195
EXPERIMENT 7.9: FOCAL LENGTH OF A CONVEX LENS 197
7.9.1: PLOTTING MAGNIFICATION AGAINST IMAGE
DISTANCE 197
7.9.2: PLOTTING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN OBJECT AND
IMAGE AGAINST THE OBJECT DISTANCE 200

EXPERIMENT 7.10: MAGNIFYING POWER OF LENS 203

7.10.1: MAGNIFYING POWER OF A
SIMPLE MICROSCOPE 203
7.10.2: MAGNIFYING POWER OF A
COMPOND MICROSCOPE 204

CHAPTER 8: VIBRATION AND WAVES 206

EXPERIMENT 8.1: VIBRATIONS OF A FIXED SPRING SINGLE WIRE
SONOMETER 207
EXPERIMENT 8.2: VIBRATION OF A LOADED TEST TUBE 210
EXPERIMENT 8.3: THE FREQUENCY OF AN ALTERNATING CURRENT
USING SINGLE WIRE SONOMETER 213
EXPERIMENT 8.4: RESONANCE TUBE METHOD FOR VELOCITY OF
SOUND AT ROOM TEMPERATURE 216

CHAPTER 9: ELECRICITY AND ELECTROMAGNETISM 220

EXPERIMENT 9.1: VARIATION OF P.D. OF A CELL AND MEASUREMENT
OF INTERNAL RESISTANCE 221
EXPERIMENT 9.2: RESISTIVITY OF A WIRE AND OHM’S LAW 226
EXPERIMENT 9.3: COMPARISON OF EMF’S OF CELLS 231

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 EXPERIMENT 9.4: THE RESISTANCE OF A VOLTMETER 235
EXPERIMENT 9.5: MEASUREMENT OF INTERNAL RESISTANCE OF A
CELL (POTENTIOMETER METHOD) 239
EXPERIMENT 9.6: TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT OF RESISTANCE
OF A WIRE 243
EXPERIMENT 9.7: CALIBRATION OF AMMETER BY
POTENTIOMETER 246
EXPERIMENT 9.8: MAGNETIC FLUX AND ANGLE OF DIP 249
EXPERIMENT 9.8.1 MAGNETIC FLUX 249
EXPERIMENT 9.8.2: ANGLE OF DIP 251

CHAPTER 10: INTRODUCTORY ELECTRONICS 252

EXPERIMENT 10.1: PASSIVE COMPONENTS 253

EXPERIMENT 10.2: STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A P-N DIODE 258
EXPERIMENT 10.3: ZENER DIODE 261
EXPERIMENT 10.4: SIMPLE ALTERNATING INDUCTIVE CIRCUIT 264
EXPERIMENT 10.5: SIMPLE ALTERNATING CAPACITIVE CIRCUIT 267

INDEX 270

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