Talk:Optical Pumping

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Analysis Section

The organization of the analysis section does not really make a whole lot of sense to me. For instance, unless I am missing something, it seems like it would be a lot easier to calibrate the equation for the magnetic field for the Helmholtz coils after calculating the strength of the Earth's field using the best fits. Another thing I find strange is the separation of the data analysis in to two pages, one at the bottom of the procedure and one in a separate place altogether. Why not put all of the linear regression related topics in one place, since it would make sense to use the slope and intercept of the composite best fits and then make calculations, rather than calculate slopes and intercepts for four sets of data, calculate the geomagnetic field, and then do a different calculation of the slope and intercept later on. The one other issue I have is the use of notation which seems to be specific to Lyons, and does not seem to correspond to notation used in other books. I am not sure what R is, or the "errors of adjusted coefficients," as neither appears anywhere in Taylor. I say all of this after spending the last week trying to parse the two sections to figure out what exactly I have to do, and finding that the order I actually did the analysis was not at all in line with the order in which questions were asked. My question is whether or not I have permission to make the substantive sort of changes that would make the analysis section more intuitive (at least to me), or if that is beyond the scope of what I can do as a student. James McBride 17:47, 16 March 2008 (CDT)