Summary/Abstract 5 Marks
This should be written last and should be a short summary (100 to 200 words) of the report that details the significant findings of the laboratory exercise.
Introduction 15 Marks
The introduction should be approximately 1 page long. It should include an introductory paragraph that details the relevance of this the lab to the demonstration of engineering principles. 3 marks
A few paragraphs should be written that give good examples of where this work occurs in industry/engineering design etc. What are the benefits of this lab?
9 marks
The introduction should conclude with a short paragraph that details the objectives of the laboratory exercise
3 marks
Theory 15 Marks
All background theory should be explained here; this section will need more information than is available in the laboratory handout. All equations and sample calculations should be detailed here. Always use SI units and include them in each equation.
You might want to show some calculations from theory and compare them to experimental calculations. Can you show how to calculate the efficiency of the system etc?
Equipment 10 Marks
This section should include clearly labelled photographs or schematics (often preferable) of the laboratory equipment.
5 marks
All components should be described and the system itself should be described (i.e. how do all the part go together; how does it work?)
5 marks
Procedure 10 Marks
This section should outline the test procedure in bullet-point format. It should be clear and concise and have enough detail so that the tests can be repeated easily.
Results & Discussion 25 Marks
Results will be plotted in a meaningful way. Only on very rare occasions will there be a need for a table of results. In general the measurements should be plotted (on the y-axis) against the settings (on the x-axis). Label your graphs clearly and use SI units.
10 marks
The discussion should compare and make sense of the trends displayed on the graph. Questions that should be answered in this section are:
How does the theory compare with the experiment?
Have I connected the dots correctly? (i.e. should the trend be linear/parabolic etc?)
How does a