Practice question · Put in order
Assemble the standard structure of a physics lab report, top to bottom.
- Method, apparatus and procedure, reproducible by a peer
- Introduction & theory, the equation to be tested
- Abstract, one paragraph: goal, method, headline result with uncertainty
- Discussion & conclusion, comparison with theory, error sources, verdict
- Results & analysis, data tables, plots, fits, propagated uncertainties
Hints
- The order mirrors the reader’s questions: what did you find? why do it? how? show me. what does it mean?
- The abstract is written last but placed first, it is the paper in miniature.
Show the answer
- Abstract, one paragraph: goal, method, headline result with uncertainty
- Introduction & theory, the equation to be tested
- Method, apparatus and procedure, reproducible by a peer
- Results & analysis, data tables, plots, fits, propagated uncertainties
- Discussion & conclusion, comparison with theory, error sources, verdict
Why
The report format is a communication protocol honed over centuries: a busy reader gets the verdict in the abstract, and a skeptical one can descend level by level all the way to raw data. Reproducibility, someone else repeating your method, is the standard the structure serves.
Practise Scientific Report Writing
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Physics I is free to start.
More questions on Scientific Report Writing
- Match each section of a scientific report to its content.
- Which should be included in the conclusion of a lab report?
- Complete the following passage by choosing the correct terms from the word bank.
- Sort each item into the correct section of a lab report.
- A scientific report must contain enough for another group to repeat the work. Why is that the standard rather…
- The abstract of a scientific report should be written last, after all other sections are complete.
- Complete the statement with the correct term.