A simple but sophisticated laboratory equipped with good instruments is an essential component of physical science education for students majoring in the humanities and the social sciences. Bates College will add instruments to the physics and astronomy laboratory for non-majors which will substantially improve the laboratory experience. The instruments consist of telescopes which will collect light for photometers and spectrometers through a fiber-optics system, as well as equipment to measure the properties of photons and electrons. The instruments will allow students to make a wide variety of measurements of the quality of light radiated by laboratory and astronomical sources and to conduct key experiments relevant to the particle-wave nature of light and matter.
