The responsibility of an experimental scientist is to accurately report the results of the experiment. Good scientific writing skills are as important to a scientist as the writing skills of a journalist or poet are to their professions. A good lab report will always have certain qualities that make it useful to outside readers. First, the report should be written in such a way that a non-expert (someone not in your lab class) could read it. It should clearly state: what principles you were trying to test, how you did the measurement, what data you obtained, whether or not you confirmed the theoretical prediction, and what errors were associated with the measurement. The report needs to be readable, with complete sentences and proper grammar. A report with too little information will not be useful, and a report that is filled with unnecessary information will often confuse the reader. Graphs and tables need to be properly labeled and referenced in the text. Numbers should always be shown with the appropriate units. Your report should be typed. Word-processors have equation editors and work well for reports. Most spreadsheet software, does a decent job at graphing and making concise tables of data. Graphs can be exported from the Capstone software and inserted directly into the report.

The formal reports will be done after you collect data in class. Your TA will inform the class when the formal reports are due. Electronic submission (e-mail) of formal lab reports is not allowed unless explicitly approved by your TA. If electronic submission is allowed by the TA, it is the responsibility of the student to submit the report on-time and in the correct format. Late formal lab reports will receive a 10% deduction for each day or part of a day the report is late. Formal lab reports must be the work of the individual student except for data collected and calculation performed during the lab period. Group reports are not allowed.

Formal lab reports will be done on the 'Kinematics - Velocity and Acceleration' and 'Rotational Motion' experiments.

The 30 points for the formal lab reports will be allocated as follows:

• Quiz - 4 points
• Introduction - 5 points
• Procedure - 4 points
• Data, Analysis and Results - 11 points
• Conclusions - 6 points

The components of a formal lab report consist of the following.

• Title: The name of the lab should appear prominently at the top of the first page. Your name, the name of your lab partner, your TA, your lab section and date should also be shown at the top of the first page.

• Introduction: In this section, you should describe the motivation for the experiment. The purpose of the lab should be clearly stated. All important concepts, physical principles and laws should be clearly explained. Theoretical information should be clearly explained and its relevance to the experiment clearly defined.

• Procedure: The procedure section should contain a clear description of the experimental process. Information in this section should allow another group to reproduce the experiment after reading this section. Relevant equipment and apparatus should be listed in this section.

• Data and Analysis: This section should contain a clear presentation of the data obtained. This section should contain all of the raw data. The data should be well organized and clearly labeled. A table of data is usually a good idea. Graphs are highly encouraged and often required in many labs. Graphs should be neat, have a clear title and have all axis clearly labeled. Tables, figures and graphs should be referenced in the text. All data should be included, even if you suspect it is in error. Also remember to label all graphs, and include units for all numbers listed. The manipulation and calculations of the data should be presented. One example of any calculation must be shown for any set of multiple data points. Other calculations should be neat and clearly explained. It is not necessary to show all arithmetic calculations but the reader should be able to clearly understand the manipulation of the raw data to determine the final results. This section should contain a discussion of uncertainties i.e., systematic and/or statistical errors as appropriate. This section is also the appropriate place to answer questions that are asked in the lab manual or additional questions that your TA might have for you.

• Conclusions: This is the section where you state whether or not you confirmed the principle being tested and present a thorough description of any relevant errors. Was the objective stated in the purpose section attained? If a physical parameter was measured, what is the value? How does the value compare to the accepted value? What is the 'uncertainty' in your value e.g. percent error?