LAB REPORT WRITING GUIDE, with HINTS AND SHORTCUTS

There is no set format for the lab reports. The goal is for you to develop your own style and learn how to communicate experimental results accurately and concisely (using as few pages as possible to get across all the relevant information). Your reports should look like professionally published engineering documents e.g., your textbooks, instruction manuals, S ! "apers. #n $! %&' you do not simply follow a prescribed procedure in lab and in writing the lab reports. You must think about what data you need to take to get the answers, and then develop your own procedures to get that data. # will not tell you what figures and tables to put in your lab reports ( you must determine for yourself what data is important and how to present it. Experimental results should be critically analyzed. When possible, they should be compared to results from theory or simulations. When possible, the experimental results should be graphed to show trends. Objectives For E !"# Fluids $ab Experience% &o validate the theoretical analysis techni'ues learned in lecture and to illustrate the physical concepts of fluid mechanics discussed in the lecture and the boo(, and to demonstrate the limitations of basic fluids theory. &o develop effective communication of technical information, including proficiency in icrosoft WO)* and E+,E$, and to develop computer s(ills for ac'uiring data, data reduction, error analysis, and plotting. For the students to become familiar with and able to use experimental techni'ues for analysis of fluid flows &o develop an ability for team-wor(. .will be critical for your senior design experience/ &o learn how to write concisely 0 there is a 1 page limit on lab reports. &o foster the confidence and self-reliance re'uired for open-ended experiments .i.e., solving real-world problems/ and reduce dependence on a 2coo(boo(3 approach. &o encourage creativity in the use of experimental apparatus and data-ac'uisition. 4efore ,oming to $ab% )ead through the $ab 5nstructions 6rint out an E+,E$ spreadsheet for ta(ing data. &he sheet should be blan( except for row and column headings. *ecide if you need to bring anything else to lab .camera, video camera, calculator, laptop/ 7tart wor(ing through calculations to determine what data to ta(e. 5f the relevant material has not yet been covered in class lecture, you should ta(e the initiative to read it in the textboo(. &he experiments will ma(e much more sense to you if you are prepared,

they will ta(e less time to complete, and you will get better data .which seems to be particularly a problem in the # am lab section/. You may use any of the e)uipment in the *luids +ab to get the data you need. This e)uipment includes, Stopwatches Tachometer +aser +evel *lowbench mass flow meters "itot Tubes (for velocity) $anometers (for pressure) -ulers Tape measure $ercury barometer .igital barometer Thermometer /raduated cylinders !lectronic scales -adar gun *low visuali0ation tools (powder, wax chips, koolaid, cork floats) $iscellaneous supplies (wood blocks, plastic bins, string, washers) You can also borrow e)uipment from the 1!/T shop (micrometers, calipers, clamps, etc.) $ate lab reports penalized 8"9 per day late. $ab reports turned in after 8%"8 pm are considered a day late. $ab reports are limited to a maximum of 1 pages. &here is a penalty of : pts for each page over 1. "roper *ormatting for Technical -eports, ; lab report is considered a technical report. ;s such, it must be professional and neat. &he entire report must be computer generated .so that it could be emailed if necessary/. ;ny drawings made by hand must be made with a straight-edge and clearly labeled, and then scanned in to the report .you can use the scanner in the senior design room/. $argins must be 2ustified, page numbers must be included on each page. Your entire report must be computer generated (so that the whole file could be emailed, if necessary). That means everything must be typed. scanned(in version of a hand(drawn figure is acceptable if the figure is drawn neatly, but figures created with computer programs (such as uto1 .) are preferred. !)uations must be numbered and in proper format. n example follows, &he effect of these forces on the flight of the plane can be understood though <ewton=s second law% >F?ma .8/ where F represents each individual force, m the mass of the plane, and a its

vector acceleration. Think about the best and most concise way to present your data ( this is usually with a figure or data table. #n most cases, you will want to compare your experimental results with theoretical or empirical predictions. Tables and *igures are usually the best way to do this. The percentage experimental error should be stated and error bars included on your graphs. !rror bars represent the experimental uncertainty (discussed below). Format of Pictur ! a"# Ta$% ! -efer to your ME 101 notes for proper formatting of graphs and figures. 6lots are an integral part of technical reports and must be professional. Each axis must be labeled with appropriate units. 7cales must be readable to the same accuracy .@ of significant digits/ as the data obtained during the test. <ote that data sets derived from data must show experimental data points, while curves derived from an e'uation should contain no symbols, and only a smoothed line. Aou need to (now when it is appropriate to show the points and when to show the line connecting the points in your plots. When plotting experimental data, show the data points. Aou may wish to add a trendline, but always show the original data pointsB When plotting a functional .analytical/ relationship, show only the line connecting the points, not the points themselves. 5f the functional relationship is smooth, ma(e sure you generate enough points so that curve is smooth as well. The x and y axes need to be labeled with title and units. #f more than one line is drawn on a graph, each line is identified using a legend. #f only one line is drawn, no legend is needed. 3othing on a plot is drawn freehand. &he bac(ground of the figure should be white, not dar( gray as is the default in E+,E$. &he number of digits used in the scale should reflect the accuracy of the data .not more than ! digits/. *o not leave large areas of blan( space at the bottom of a page after a figure or table. ove text from a subse'uent page to fill in the blan( area. *o not cut off tables at the end of a page. Aour reports should loo( li(e a professionally produced engineering document. 3ote that many of the defaults in !41!+ and $ T+ 5 are not optimal for easy reading. .o use the default gray background for plots in !41!+ ( change it to white6clear. 7se symbols that are easy to differentiate from each other. ll text labels should be at least 8&(point font. xes should be labeled with units, and a legend with descriptive titles used when more than one line is plotted. 1olor should be used only when necessary to differentiate a large number of points or lines. 7se colors that are easy to see (avoid light yellow in !41!+) The final results from the experiments are listed in Table 8 below. Trial 9 8 Time (units) Speed (units) .istance (units) *orce (units) "ower (units)

: % Table 8, *inal results from several airplane experiments. 5elow is an example of a properly formatted *igure. The title goes beneath the figure and should be descriptive. The legend can be placed directly on the figure to save space (you have to do this manually in !41!+ ; it is not the default). !ach axis must be labeled with units specified.

120 Flat Plane 100 Curved Plate

80

60

40 Fluid Force on object (N) 20

0 0 2 4 6 Fluid Velocity (m/s) 8 10 12

Figure 8% *orce due to stream of fluid hitting an ob2ect. )EFE)E<,E7 Cse standard $; or ;6; citations for boo(s and technical articles. Aour textboo( is a boo( and should be cited as such and not simply as 2the textboo(3. For citations of webpages include the title of the page and the author, as in the following example% 4rain, arshall and ;d(ins, 4rian 2Dow ;irplanes Wor(3 from How Stuff Works, http%EEtravel.howstuffwor(s.comEairplane.htm. 88E8!EF""". ;66E<*5,E7 &he only use for an appendix should be to list the original raw data if it is not contained elsewhere in the report, or to show detailed calculations of data

when only the final results are presented in the report. #n Summary, a neat, well organi0ed report is expected. Spelling and grammatical errors are not acceptable. # will take off at least 8 point for each and every mistake in your lab report, including typos, grammatical mistakes, incorrect presentation of data, and using too many digits in your numbers. Aour reports should loo( li(e a professionally published report. &he goal is for you to learn how to present your wor( in an effective manner to your peers and superiors, so that you will be successful on your job.

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Formatting 6ictures% )ight clic( on the picture and select Format Picture from the menu. Jo to Layout and clic( on Advanced. Cse Lock Anchor and Move Object with e!t to get the picture to move as you type more text. For a &able right clic( and select able Pro"erties.

Experimental Error and Uncertainty Analysis, The procedure is to first estimate the uncertainty in each measured )uantity (time, distance, mass, temperature, pressure, etc., and then to analy0e the propagation of uncertainty into the results calculated from the experimentally obtained data. 7ncertainty in measurements can be estimated by looking at the precision of the measuring device being used. lternatively, error can be estimated by having multiple people taking a reading at the same flow condition and looking at the range in values different people measure. #f the exact value of a variable is known, the difference between the measured value and the exact value is the experimental error. This can be thought of as bias error in the system, and if it is known, it can be subtracted off. The previous error, due to differences in measuring from different users, can be thought of as a random error. !rrors in measurements can be categori0ed as either systematic or random. The randomness of such errors leads to experimental uncertainty. good model for the propagation of errors into a calculated )uantity from measured ones is that the error is e)ual to the s)uare root of the sum of the effects of the s)uare of each of the individual errors, using the chain rule,
f = df 2 dx x i i i

<here each xi represents an originally measured )uantity, and xi is the experimental uncertainty in the measured value of xi. !xample, 7ncertainty in density calculation using #deal gas law, for temperature measured with a thermometer and pressure with a mercury barometer. =ere the accuracy of the density measurement will be affected by the accuracy of the pressure and temperature measurements.

PM RT

<e can assume that $ and - are >exact?, so that we need only be concerned with uncertainties

in the measured values of " and T. The value of $ might not be exact if there are impurities present in the gas mixture, but we will ignore that for now. #f the temperature is measured with a thermometer to an accuracy of @6( &.A 1, and the pressure is read from the electronic barometer with an accuracy of @6( 8& "a, then the uncertainty in the calculated value of the density can be estimated. The formula fro the propagation of errors in this case is,
= 2 2 P T + T P

The ideal gas law must be used to evaluate the partial derivatives,

PM PM 1 2 = T = (T ) = T R RT T

M PM 1 = = = P RT RT P P
Substituting these relationships into the propagation of errors e)uation yields,
2 2 T 2 P 2 = T + P = + T P T P

7pon dividing both sides by the density,

T 2 P 2 = + T P

So for the ideal gas law, which is a linear relationship, the relative error in the density calculation is e)ual to the s)uare root of the sum of the relative errors of the pressure and temperature measurements. "lugging in the values above on a day when the measured pressure is 8&& k"a and the temperature is :: 1 B :CA D.
2 0.5K 2 10 Pa 2 2 = + = (0.0017) + (0.0001) = 0.0017 295K 100,000 Pa

So for the calculated density of 8.8' kg6m%, the uncertainty is @6( &.&&8EF8.8' kg6m% B @6( &.&&: kg6m%. So for these relatively accurate measurements, it is acceptable to carry three significant digits after the decimal point, but no more than three digits. !xample, *rom #mpulse(momentum experiment, The directly measured force is linearly proportional to the displacement of the balancing weight, so that *dir B 1 x. The uncertainty in measuring x is @6( 8 mm, so the uncertainty in the force is,

F =

(Cx )

So the relative uncertainty in the *orce is,

F x = F x

*or the indirect force on the flat plate target, the primary uncertainty comes from the measurement of the water flow rate.
Find = AV 2 = 2 m A

<hile in theory the mass flow rate error is due only to uncertainty in the stopwatch timing, in practice the error is much larger, probably around AG.
2 2 2 m 2 m 2 F 2 2 m m = = F = m m = 2 F m m A A m

F = F

m m

#f the uncertainty in the mass flow rate is AG, then the uncertainty in the indirect force is about EG. <ith the uncertainty now known, these values should be used to create error bars on your graphs. This is easily done in !41!+. .ouble click on a data series and select error bars and select the relevant options. !xperimental error !xperimental error is defined as the difference between the measured value and the predicted or theoretical value.
%error = measured predicted 100% predicted

#f the experimental error is less than the experimental uncertainty, than the difference between the predicted and measured values can be explained due to the limited precision of the instruments. .ata Hutliers Hccasionally user or e)uipment error will result in a data point that does not seem to agree with theory or the rest of the data gathered. There may be times after lab when you are analy0ing the data, and you find the numbers come

out looking ridiculous. #f every number gives you a ridiculous result, then you know you did the experiment incorrectly or there was an e)uipment failure. t a research lab, you would have to go back and repeat the experiment. The Iobst fluids lab is used for other courses and research, so your only option here would be to hope you can get the data from another lab group. #t may be instead that most of your data looks good, but there are one or two points that do not follow the overall trend. You may feel tempted to eliminate these data points from your report. You may then feel your conscience nagging you that arbitrarily removing points is bad science. *ortunately there is a scientific way of evaluating data statistically to see if a particular data point is an outlier from the overall sample. #n order to throw out data points you must be able to (a) think of a explanation of how the error occurred (such as user error), (b) define an ob2ective criteria by which bad data is identified and eliminated. 1hauvenetJs criteria is a statistically valid method for removing data outliers from a data set. #n the example below it is believed that the data (y) should follow a linear fit with the independent variable (x). "rocedure, 8. *it a curve to the (x,y) data set using !41!+Js Add Trendline option. $ake sure to print the formula of the trendline to the screen. (This example uses a linear fit, but the method should work for polynomial or exponential curves, too). :. 1alculate the deviation, d, of each data point from the trendline. *or this example with a linear fit of the form y B m x @ b, the deviation is, i B yi ; (m xi @ b) %. *or i B 8, :, %, K, 3, where 3 is the number of x,y data points. L. 1ompute the standard deviation of the data set, using the formula,

( N 1) A. 1ompute the Deviation Ratio, .-, for each data point.

( )
i i=1

DR =

M. Then 1ompare the .eviation -atio, .-, to the maximum statistically allowable deviation ratio, .-&, based on the normal distribution and the number of data points used. #f .- N .-& the data point can be re2ected and omitted from the data set. E. fter dropping the bad data points, re(compute a new curve fit (!41!+ will do this automatically if you 2ust erase the bad data point from the cells the chart is using). n example using a linear fit is contained in an !41!+ file 1hauvenet.xls on the class website. The allowable .eviation -atios as a function of number of data points is shown in the table below. 3 (number of data points) A 8& .-max (max allowed) 8.MA 8.CM

8A :& :A A& 8&&

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