There are many ways to mentally approach the physics lab experience. One way is to attempt to prove exactly what is taught in the classroom. The problem with this approach is that seldom does the reality of experiment match exactly the theory of the classroom. Additionally, the student who approaches lab with this attitude may miss some interesting but subtle things because he is not looking with full curiosity, but is only trying to "prove" a theory.

A much better approach, but much harder to achieve in practice, is that of unbiased curiosity. Most of what we currently know about science came about because men and women that we call scientists wondered "what would happen if..." and then tried to find out. The best part about science is that often the first guess is wrong, and the surprise that you encounter may lead you along some new and exciting path that you didn’t anticipate at first. The scientific method is a pattern not of "proving" something, but rather of finding out about something.

It is my hope that you, the student, will approach these laboratory exercises with a view of finding out what will happen, not trying to get a "perfect result" or a zero percent error when compared with theory. While it is important that a scientist not be sloppy in his procedure, perfect procedure is not the most important thing in a lab. It is much more important to be able to think and reason clearly, to see beyond the numbers to the logical conclusion of what the numbers mean. If one sees only the numbers and the percent error of the experiment, he has probably missed the entire purpose of the experiment, and should be scored correspondingly low on his grade.

Thus, I want to emphasize to you the importance of thinking, of trying to understand the what and why of the things that you do, and not just spend your time here trying to get numbers to write down on the paper to hand in. Creativity involves extending the work of others, not just reproducing that work to prove it correct. A good scientist, whatever field he is in, must be creative to succeed. Lack of creativity is tantamount to mediocrity, and mediocrity never leads to success.

To summarize what I expect from you during this term in lab: THINK, THINK AGAIN, and RETHINK.