Physics 4L (39L)
Overview of the Course
This laboratory course is the "beta" version of what will become Physics 4L, the laboratory course to accompany the Physics 4 series (4A-4E) for majors. The course consists of five projects in electrical circuits, four projects in optical circuits, and one project in data sampling and computational spectral analysis. A conceptual goal is to understand the same phenomena in real space and in Fourier space. This course was initiated by Prof. David Kleinfeld with the assiatence of Mr. Sincheng Huang.
The course consists of a one hour lecture (Mondays at 12:00 PM to 12:50 PM in Mayer 2702) and a three hour laboratory (Tuesdays at 11:00 AM to 1:50 PM in Mayer 3574 (electrical) or 3722 (optical).
Running schedule for Winter 2026
| Week 1 (5 January): Kirchhoff’s laws, resistors, and ideal sources |
| Laboratory: Instruments and DC circuits |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| Thevenin equivalent handout |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
| Week 2 (12 January): Kirchhoff’s laws using capacitors and inductors |
| Laboratory: Sources and Thevenin equivalents |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| RC time-domain analysis |
(0.2 Mb PDF) |
| RL time-domain analysis |
(0.2 Mb PDF) |
| Week 3 (19 January): Convolution and linear response theory |
| Laboratory: RC circuits in time domain |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| Convolution integral in pictures |
(0.5 Mb PDF) |
| RC convolution with external drive |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
| Week 4 (26 January): Temporal domain analysis of resonant circuits |
| Laboratory: RLC circuits in time domain (resonance and under/critical/over damping) |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| Simple harmonic motion |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
| RLC with lossy inductor |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
| Week 5 (2 February): Frequency domain analysis of resonant circuits |
| Laboratory: (RLC circuits in frequency domain; resonance and under/critical/over damping |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| Spectral domain circuit analysis |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
| Week 6 (9 February): Data acquisition and spectral analysis |
| Laboratory: Analysis of mixed spectral signals |
(x.x Mb PDF) |
| Spectral methods |
(5.3 Mb PDF) |
| Week 7 (16 February): The ABCDs of optics |
| Laboratory: Image formation (Chapter 6.1, Exercises 1-3) |
(15.2 Mb PDF) |
| ABCD matrices |
(2.3 Mb PDF) |
| Week 8 (23 February): Fourier optics 1 |
| Laboratory: Fourier optics (Chapters 5.4 and 6.2, Exercises 4-6) |
(15.2 Mb PDF) |
| Week 9 (2 March): Fourier optics 2 |
| Laboratory: Image formation in optics (Chapter 6.3, Exercises 7-23) |
(15.2 Mb PDF) |
| Week 10 (9 March): Descriptive statistics and regression |
| Laboratory: Image formation in optics (Chapters 6.4-6.7, Exercises 24-31) |
(15.2 Mb PDF) |
| Regression |
(0.1 Mb PDF) |
Data Sheets
Equipment Manuals
Auxillary materials
