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labReports.pdf
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first occasion that they are used. For ocample,
Newton’s second law of motion dictates that the force experienced by as solid body is the product of it’s mass and acceleration, as per the equation, F=inbxa (1) where F represents force, ma is the body’s mass and a is the acceleration.
However, if the lab report has a large number of symbols it can be more convenient to place these all in a list called the nomenclature. If necessary, ensure that all subscripts and superscripts are fully defined. The nomenclature can be placed at the beginning or end of a lab report, depending on which is more logical or which local convention dictates.
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2.5 An introduction
The introduction provided the reader with the background to the work that is documented in the lab report. This section is should set the scene for what is to follow. There should be a broad introduction into the background of the science and contextualize the reasons the purpose of doing the work. For example, if the subject of the lab report is discussing an experiment conducted on a photovoltaic solar panel, the introduction should mention the principles of collecting solar energy from the sun and conversion of solar energy to electrical energy by photons operating on photodiodes. To place in context the purpose of this example experiment, the introduction of the lab report would include involve discussing the benefits of increasing the efficiency solar cells as reducing the manufacturing cost of solar energy and potentially reducing the carbon emissions of alternative energy production. Given that the reader may not be familiae with the specifics of the discipline that the researcher may be working in, it is necessary to give a broad description of the work that has been conducted and the science involved and attempt, where possible, to explain any principles that are necessary to understand the work that has been done. The introduction should also contain the aims or objectives of the the proposed work. For example, an objective may be of the form “The objective of the experiment is to simulate the fluid and energy flow within an industrial heat exchanger unit and establish the sensitivity of the operating efficiency on flow rate”. If an aim of the experiment is to investigate a hypothesis then this should be stated in the introduction. An example of a hypothesis may be “It is proposed that the installation of domestic goundwater heat pumps can become economically beneficial after a period of 10 years continuous operation”. Once again, the aims, objectives and hypothesis should be given context to the real world application outside the experiment. In summary, the introduction should include
• A background to the subject • Previously conduced work in the same subject • Aims and objectives for the work that will be presented in the lab report • Reasons why the work is being conducted It is commonplace in scientific journals when mentioning previously conducted work in the field to discuss why the work presented in the lab report is novel. While this should be included in lab reports (as there is not normally reason to repeat work that has already been done), for a university course lab report, this will not be necessary. For final year research projects PhD publication and theses, it will be.
2.6 The body of the report The body of the report will be dependant on the precise nature of the work that is being reported. However, the following are a number of sections that may useful to include in most engineering lab reports:
• Experimental technique • Experimental procedure • Theoretical analysis • Analytical results Given that one objective of the lab report is to document the experiment to the extent that it can be repeated by another person, the body of the report should include details of exactly what procedures were applied during the experiment and what equipment was used.
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