Physical measurements

Notes are on my up-to-date website

Course description

Fizikalna merjenja is a required course for third-year undergraduates in the FMF physics program. These notes are from the summer semester of the 2020-21 academic year, when the course was taught by professor Dejan Cvetko (lecture) and asst. professor Gregor Kladnik (exercises). The course covers a medley of practical topics in data processing, statistics, analog electronics, and control theory; specific topics include:

• optimally combining dependent and independent measurements
• the Kalman filter for tracking scalar and vector variables
• statistics: parameter estimation, goodness-of-fit tests, linear least squares
• sensors: the Laplace transform, transfer functions, and Bode plots
• basic analog electronics: input and output impedance, negative feedback, operational and instrumentation amplifiers, common op-amp circuits
• Nyquist (thermal) noise: power spectral density and propagation through linear systems
• basic principles of systems with negative feedback
• practical techniques: lock-in detection, phase-locked loops, displacement sensors