Experimental Physics

A theory is a philosophy unless it is proved experimentally. You might be aware of so called "String theory" , the main problem why peoples can't accept as a theory ( It is still a philosophy to many physicits) is that the strings are so small that we can not prob given the current technology. So Experimental physics is back bone of the modern physics.

First thing to note is that we can not measure any physics quantity accurately, be it the length of the rod. So whenever we report some measured quantity it sould be with proper error involved in it and with proper unit. I will discuss error analysis in different blog. Here we will just introuduce our self to experimental physics.

Second most important thing is to understand about the measuring instrument. Again no instrument in the world can give you the exact measurment. Since whenever you prob the system of measuring some quantity you are acutally distrubing the system and hence what you are measuring the is the quantity related to this distrubed system, not the original system. The quality and reliability of the instrument depends upon how much less you distrube the system while doing the mesurment. You probably be wondering why I am discussing this because the error in the measurment etc comes with the instruments data sheet but as a experimentalist you should be able to make your own measuring instrument and experimental setup so you should be aware of this things.

The third part comes to analyse the data. You will find in most of the cases the ouput is some voltage or current ( as we use sensors in measurments which give electrical signals as output) so you should be able to intereprate from this signals your actual measurment quantity.

At last what you required to become the best experinetalist is some knowledge about the physics behind the system you are measuring, quantitites you want to measure and there order and error level you expect, some knowledge of electronics and computer Programming ( When you want to design an automated measurment system, which will be the main topic of y discussion ) and lot of patience.

Well if you qualify non of the above qualification, don't get disapointed. The best experimentalist I know , Michal Faraday also failed to satisfy this criterial still he proposed some of the great physics law based upon his experimental observations.