Physics Laboratory Facilities
- The Physics Department is located in B223. Our newly designed labs include B224, B226, B227 and B229. The department also has lab rooms B139 and B121. Each room is equipped with appropriate laboratory equipment, computers for data collection and analysis, and multimedia support equipment for lectures.
- The Apple Lab supports many of the science division’s courses with up-to-date Macintosh computers running a variety of teaching software. The physics program has provided a wide selection of software focused on many of the central topics in our courses. Other applications are available to help you with laboratory reports and data analysis. Instructors frequently assign out of class problems and projects that utilize this facility.
- The BC Math Lab is often used by physics students to get help with questions of a mathematical nature.
Lecture Demonstrations
As Einstein said “..the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see”. While your instructor will undoubtedly talk to you during your first lectures, you will also have the opportunity to see directly what he or she is saying. BC actively supports effective lecture demonstrations. A fine collection of experiments and apparatus is used by physics instructors to help bring home the significant points in the lesson.
The physics faculty also supports lecture demonstrations in other disciplines through training those faculty members in the use of the apparatus or by making guest appearances in their courses. If you are a faculty member visiting this page and are interested in physical demonstrations for your classes, contact Robert Hobbs.
Physics in Real Time
Many of the laboratory experiments are supported by computer assisted, real-time data collection and analysis. This allows the students to observe the significant result of an experiment while the original experimental question is still clearly in mind – in fact, while the experiment is still unfolding. For these experiments laborious data analysis is avoided so that the key relationship being established stands out and is immediately accessible to the student. Keep in mind though that, in physics, how you get the answer is often as important as the answer itself. We have designed the labs to try to achieve a balance between immediate results and student driven calculation and analysis. Both are important and both are incorporated in our course offerings.
Last Updated May 1, 2020
