Focus on Physics - Computers in the Introductory Laboratory

这个项目的主要目的是为物理入门学生创造一个现代化的实验室环境，使学生能够尽可能地将他或她的注意力集中在正在研究的系统的物理上。这个项目的第二个目标是培养一个有技术素养的入门学生。这些意味着消除运行不佳的设备、过时的数据收集技术和数学枯燥乏味的干扰。这些意味着增加对最新计算机的支持，通过各种传感器进行电子数据收集，以及用于复杂数据分析的软件。这种新的实验室环境已经到位，它允许学生在更广泛的现实世界现象中更容易地识别潜在的物理原理，而不是使用以前的现有设备，从而提高了学生对物理的理解及其与自己感兴趣的领域的相关性。在设计实验室实验时，学生们都很小心，这样学生就可以使用这种技术先进的设备，而不会把它当作另一个黑匣子。为了实现这个项目的目标，确保今天的物理学生能够更好地掌握那些问题背后的物理原理以及解决这些问题所需的技术，从而更好地处理明天的问题。

The primary aim of this project is to create a modern laboratory environment for the introductory physics student in which the student is allowed to focus his or her attention as completely as possible on the physics of the system under study. A secondary aim of this project is to create a technologically literate introductory student. These have meant removing the distractions of poorly functioning equipment, outmoded data collection techniques, and mathematical tedium. These have meant adding the support of up-to-date computers, electronic data collection via a variety of transducers, and software for sophisticated data analysis. This new laboratory environment has been put into place and it allows the student to identify more easily the underlying physical principles in a wider range of real-world phenomena than was possible with the previously existing equipment, thus the students understanding of physics and its relevance to his or her own field of interest has been improved. Care has been exercised in the design of laboratory experiments so that the student can use the power of this technologically advanced equipment without treating it as just another blackbox. In achieving the aims of this project, one ensures that the physics student of today will approach the problems of tomorrow with a better grasp of physical principles underlying those problems and of the technology necessary to solve them.