ELC2430:ElectricalCircuitTheory

Mr.ProfessorName
Lab0:SampleFormalReport
StudentOneandStudentTwo
August24,2010

Abstract
Theobjectiveofthisreportistodemonstratethecorrectformatofaformalreport,aswellasgivesome
generalinformationaboutwritingtechnicalpapersandreports.Mostimportantly,theentirereportis
writteninthirdperson,meaningtherearenoreferencestoI,we,us,you,etc.Forthepurposes
ofdemonstration,alaboratoryexercisewillbedescribedinwhichtheexperimentermeasuredthe
valuesofvariousresistors.Thisdatawillbepresentedalongwithadiscussionofthevariousformatting
elements.

Introduction
Resistorsuseacolorcodetospecifyaresistancevalueandtolerance.Figure1showshowtodetermine
thesevaluesforagivenresistor.Mostresistorsusea4bandcolorcode,whichisatthetopofthechart.

Figure1.Resistorcolorcodechart[1].

TheresistorsinRogersEngineeringroom305haveaspecifiedtoleranceof+/10%.Anumberof
resistorsatvariousvaluesweretestedtodetermineiftheyareactuallywithinthespecifiedtolerance.

Procedure
AGenRad1657RLCDigibridgewasusedtomeasurevariousresistorsvalues,whicharegiveninTable1.
NotethereferenceinthecaptionforFigure1.ThisisthestandardIEEEformatforreferences[2],which
arelistedintheReferencessection(below)intheorderthattheyarecited.
Also,notethatthepicturewasoriginallylargerthaniscurrentlyappearsandwasautomaticallypushed
tothenextpage.Inordertoavoidunnecessarywhitespace,thepicturewasmadesmallersoitwould
fitonthefirstpagebutnotsosmallthatitwasnolongerreadable.
MicrosoftWordmakesiteasiertokeeptrackofnumbering(forfigures,tables,equations,etc.)aswell.
ThecaptionforFigure1wascreatedbyselecting(clicking)thepicture,thenchoosingInsertCaption
undertheReferencestab(inWord2007).Thenareferencetothefigure(liketheoneintheprevious
sentence)canbemadebychoosingCrossreferenceundertheReferencestab,selectingFigurefor

theReferencetype,selectingOnlylabelandnumberforInsertreferenceto,selectingthe
appropriatefigureunderForwhichcaption,andclickingInsert.ThiswillinsertthetextFigure#at
thecursor,where#islinkedtothefigurechosenandwillautomaticallyupdateasfiguresareaddedor
movedaround.Thesameprocessworksfortablesandequations,providedthattheappropriate
Referencetypeischosen.

Results
Table1containsthespecifiedandmeasuredvaluesforeachoftheresistorstested.
Table1.Measuredversusspecifiedresistorvalues.

Specified
Value()

Measured
Value()

10
22
47
100
220
470
1k
2.2k
4.7k
10k
22k
47k
100k
220k
470k

10.80
22.13
48.35
92.39
236.15
432.99
1013.18
2010.52
5029.65
9272.85
23982.49
48428.42
99949.95
229101.08
434293.87

Recallthatresistancecanalsobecalculatedusingoneofthefollowingformulas:

1.

(OhmsLaw)

2.

3.

TheseformulaswerewrittenusingMicrosoftEquationEditor.Thiseditormakeswritingequationsmuch
easierandformatsthemnicely.Iftheequationdoesnothavetextnexttoit(e.g.thenumberingwith
theformulasabove),thenitshouldbecentered,whichtheeditorwilldoautomaticallyforyou.

AppendixAcontainssometipsabouthowtousetheEquationEditorinWord2007.(Theydonotapply
toWord2003.)Itishighlyrecommendedthatthereaderunderstandthesetipsastheycanbeuseful
fortherestofhisorhercareer.
Alsonotethat,typically,youdonotwanttoendasection,orthereport,withanythingotherthantext
(i.e.afigure,equation,etc.).

Conclusions
Theresistorsthatweremeasuredhaveaspecifiedtoleranceof+/10%.Table1showsthat,indeed,the
measuredvaluesarewithin+/10%ofthespecifiedvalueofeachresistor.Thus,thedatasupportthe
manufacturersclaim.Anumberofpointersaboutreportwritingwerealsogiven,includingwritingin
thethirdpersonandusingsomeofMicrosoftWordsfeatures.Additionalinformationcanbefoundin
[3].

References
[1]MichaelsElectronicLessons.com(2010).ResistorColorCode.[Online].Available:
http://www.michaelselectronicslessons.com/resistorcolorcode.html.
[2]D.Graffox(2009,Sept).IEEECitationReference.[Online].Available:
http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf.
[3] LaboratoryReportFormats.Dept.Elect.andComput.Eng.,BaylorUniversity,Waco,TX,2010.

AppendixA
Word2007EquationEditorTips
TheequationseditorinWord2007isquiteusefulandfairlyquick,whenyouknowafewsimple
shortcuts.First,Alt+=willinsertanequation.
Allofthesetipsusetheformatcollection_of_symbols{space},where{space}isthespacebar.
Simplecommands
1) Subscripts&superscripts:use_and^respectively
a. x_1becomes
b. x^2becomes
c. x_f^2becomes
2) Fractions:a/bbecomes
3) Parenthesis/brackets/absolutevalue:youcanthenenteranything(includingfractions)intothe
emptyboxbetweentheparens/brackets/braces/absolutevaluebars
a. ()becomes

b. []becomes

c. {}becomes

d. ||becomes| |
4) Parenthesiscanalsobeusedtogroupthings:
a. 5/(4+5+6)becomes

b. x^(56i)becomes

5) Somethingsrequiredoublespaces:
a. x_t_f{space}{space}becomes

6) Functions:theseautomaticallychangefromitalicizedtonormaltype
a. sinbecomessin
b. cosbecomescos
c. tanbecomestan
Latexcommands
LaTeXisaspeciallanguage(usedmainlybymathematicians,butalsoengineers)towritetechnical
papers,dissertations,etc.Itmakeswritingmathequationsespeciallyeasy.
7) Greekletters:allGreeklettersareaccessibleusing\letter_name.Capitalizingthefirstletter
ofthenamewillgivethecapitalversionofthegreekletter.
a. \mubecomes
b. \Gammabecomes
c. \Omegabecomes
d. \alphabecomes

8) Squareroot:\sqrtbecomes,whichcanthenbefollowedbyanotherexpression.So,the
expression\sqrt{space}34{space}becomes34.(Thiscanalsobedoneusing\sqrt(34)
{space}.)
9) Integral:\intbecomes ,whichcanbesubandsuperscriptedbythelimitsofintegration.
So,theexpression\int_0^1{space}xdxbecomes
10) Infinity:\inftybecomes
11) Sum:\sum_(n=1)^6{space}n^2{space}becomes
12) Operators:

a. x\dot{space}ybecomes
b. 1.5\times{space}10^5{space}becomes1.5 10
13) Accents:Theserequiredoublespaces.Note:thereisnospacebetweenthexandthe
\accent_name.
a. x\dot{space}{space}becomes
b. x\ddot{space}{space}becomes
c. x\bar{space}{space}becomes
d. Byitself,\bar{space}{space}becomes