Ebook: Experimental Methods For Science And Engineering Students: An Introduction To The Analysis And Presentation Of Data

I’d like to thank Simon Capelin and Cambridge University Press for the opportunity
to update this book. I also thank all those who commented on the first edition and
encouraged me to review and revise the text.
My goals in revising the text were to build on the methods appearing in the first
edition that remain the backbone of experimental work, while including other topics
that have assumed greater prominence because of, for example, changing emphases
within science and engineering courses. I have taken the opportunity to include
recent references and suggestions for further reading, where these expand consider-
ation of the topics in this book. There is an emphasis on examples and exercises that
reinforce principles, as those principles are introduced.
Like its predecessor, this edition seeks to assist students in their experimental
work, especially students in their early years of study in a college or university
course in science or engineering who are required to engage in laboratory (or field-
based) work. That work might include (a) carrying out experiments where the aims
of the experiments and the methods are prescribed, or (b) open-ended experiments,
which give students the scope and responsibility to decide what they will do and
how they will do it. As with the first edition, several topics in the book, such as
reporting findings of experiments, should be of relevance to those who carry out
experiments up to senior stages of an undergraduate course.