Laboratory Notebook

How To

Notebook

You will need a National Brand Lab Book (5x5 Quad, Green Marble, 10.125x7.875 Inches, 60 Sheets). These are quadrille ruled so you can do rough graphs and neat tables. No other notebook is acceptable for the purposes of this class.
Number the pages if they are not already numbered. Keep a table of contents at the beginning (a couple of pages should suffice). You needn’t put in a reference to every page, but list the important ones.
All written work must appear in the bound notebook. Completeness matters a great deal more than neatness.
Each entry in the notebook should begin with date, time. This includes working at home entries.
Data should have units and uncertainty. The method of collection should be noted. All data symbols should be defined in words at least once. It is unacceptable to write “V = -1.25”. It's better to write “The voltage across grid g3 is -1.25 V as measured with a Fluke 165 multimeter.” If you are too hurried for that, try “g3 voltage = -1.25 V (brown Fluke)”. A reader must be able to understand what you measured from the laboratory notebook alone. Would it make sense to you if you read over it ten years from now?
An uncertainty has the same units as the number it is describing. Write the number and its uncertainty in parenthesis followed by the unit and, if appropriate, the power of ten. Write (5.5 + 0.2) kHz as opposed to 5.5 kHz + 200 Hz.
Do not make any erasures in the notebook, nor remove any pages. If a mistake is made, neatly cross it out with a single line (consider that the mistake may not be a mistake after all) and explain briefly what went wrong. Loose pages (for example, semi-log graphs) must be pasted in with a good glue stick.
Tables and graphs should have a descriptive title. There should be no doubt what data was used to plot the graph. Graphs must have axis labels, units, and should have error bars.
Include circuit diagrams and drawings. Include derivations of equations you use. Include references for outside information. In short, include everything that pertains to your work in the laboratory!
The laboratory book must be self-contained. I should not have to refer to the laboratory write-up in order to determine what question you are answering. For example, “No it is not.” is not acceptable; “The peak-to-peak voltage on the scope is not the same as the meter reading.” is better.
Data analysis is included in the notebook. If you write a program to do some computations, include a listing of the program code; if you use a standard package, identify the package and include a copy of the output. If you use Excel I need to see the computation equations not just the results.
Do initial analysis, rough graphs, etc., as you collect data. You will be more confident that you have valid data. Include copies of Excel data sheets and plots; results, conclusions. You can always change your mind or your analysis later and include a revised improved version. When in doubt, plot it. It is always better to have too many data analyses than not enough. Don’t wait until you “have it right” to put it in the lab book. Results and rough analysis should be in the notebook before the end of lab!!!
Include a summary of results. Make written conclusions. Include questions or confusions you are thinking about. A laboratory notebook is not “a finished work” (that’s the lab report), it’s a running record of your thoughts, your processes, your experimental details, your analysis, your understanding, everything. A notebook should have sufficient detail that you can return to it in 5 years and understand what you did, how you did it, why you did it (even the dumb things) and what results were obtained.