Thermodynamics / Statistical Mechanics
Fall 2020 Syllabus
Aug 24 M Read Halliday, Resnick, and Walker chapters 18-20 before class. Course information. Introduction to Thermodynamics / Statistical Mechanics.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L01; Entropy sometimes BUT NOT ALWAYS means "disorder" Entropy and salad dressing
26 W Read Schroeder sections 1.1-1.4 before class. Temperature. See also Temperature from Wikipedia;
The Mechanical Universe: 45. Temperature and Gas Laws; Comparison of temperature scales.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L02
28 F Read Schroeder sections 1.5-1.7 before class. The Laws of Thermodynamics.
See also Perpetual Motion Machine, Perpetual Motion from Wikipedia, Rachet and Pawl from the Feynman Lectures.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L03; Unit relations in the old SI with the lonely kelvin; Water bucket story not in equilibrium -
the professor was Nigel Goldenfeld at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) hw1
31 M Read Schroeder sections 4.1-4.4 before class. Zeroth Law; First Law; extensive vs. intensive; PV diagrams; exact differentials.
See also Zeroth Law from Wikipedia; First Law by Professor Valery Kiryukhin at Rutgers.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L04;
Sep 2 W Watch Mechanical Universe episode 46. Engine of Nature before class. Equilibria; Third Law; Second Law.
See also Third Law of Thermodynamics from Wikipedia; Carnot Engine from Wikipedia;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L05;
4 F The Carnot Engine. Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle; The Einstein Szilard Refrigerators.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L06;
7 M Read Schroeder sections 2.1-2.4 before class. Heat capacities; Adiabats; Carnot Efficiency.
Watch Episode 47: Entropy - The Mechanical Universe
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L06;
9 W Read Schroeder sections 2.5-2.6 before class. Thermodynamic Potentials; Legendre transformation.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L07;
11 F Watch ph12c lecture01 counting before class; Maxwell relations; Gibbs-Duhem relation.
See also A Mnemonic Scheme for Thermodynamics by J.-C. Zhao, MRS Bulletin, Volume 34, Feb 2009; Ice bomb
Zoom video (part 1); Zoom video (part 2); Lecture notes: L07;
14 M Read Schroeder sections 5.1-5.2 before class. Gaussian Integrals; Stirling's approximation.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L08;
16 W Read Schroeder sections 3.1-3.3 before class. Hyperareas and hypervolumes of N-dimensional spheres. See also Unit sphere.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L08;
18 F Read Schroeder sections 3.4-3.6 before class. Kinetic theory of gases. See also N-sphere from Wikipedia.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L09;
21 M Watch ph12c lecture02 entropy before class. See also Lagrange multipliers.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L10.
23 W Watch ph12c lecture03 Boltzmann before class. See also POSTNET.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L11.
25 F Read Schroeder sections 6.1-6.2 before class. See also Partition Function.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L12.
28 M Read Schroeder sections 6.3-6.4 before class. See also Root mean square.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L13.
30 W Read Schroeder sections 6.5-6.7 before class. See also Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L13.
Oct 2 F Watch ph12c lecture04 ideal gas before class. See also Ensembles.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: Ensembles.
5 M Review for exam; Zoom video.
7 W Midterm Exam - in class, open book, open notes.
9 F Watch ph12c lecture05 Planck before class; See also Pierre Curie's Law.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L14.
12 M Watch ph12c lecture06 Debye before class;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L15.
14 W Watch ph12c lecture07 Gibbs before class;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L15.
16 F Read Schroeder sections 7.1-7.2 before class.
See also Below Absolute Zero: Negative Temperatures Explained, Negative temperature, What is negative temperature?.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L15.
19 M Watch ph12c lecture08 indistinguishable before class;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L16.
21 W Watch ph12c lecture09 Fermi before class; See also Sackur-Tetrode Equation, Gibbs paradox; Poincaré recurrence theorem;
Ergodic Hypothesis; Liouville's theorem; Boltzmann brains; Richard Feynman on Boltzmann Brains.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L16.
23 F Read Schroeder section 7.4 before class. See also:
Binomial distribution, Normal Distribution (Gaussian), Central limit theorem, Random walk
Random walk - 1 dimension, Random walk - 2 dimensions, Random walk - 3 dimensions, Polya's random walk constants
Brownian motion, Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian Movement by Albert Einstein
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L19.
26 M Read Schroeder section 7.3 before class.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L19.
28 W Read Schroeder sections 7.5-7.6 before class. See also
Microcanonical ensemble; Canonical ensemble; Grand canonical ensemble; Isothermal-isobaric ensemble a.k.a. Gibbs Ensemble.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L20.
30 F Watch ph12c lecture10 Bose before class;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L21.
Nov 2 M Watch ph12c lecture11 BEC before class;
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L21.
4 W Watch ph12c lecture12 thermo before class; See also Ultraviolet catastrophe.
See also Quantization of the electromagnetic field to see why the photon energy levels are the same as the quantum harmonic oscillator.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L22.
6 F Watch ph12c lecture13 Gibbs free energy before class;
See also Blackbody radiation; Planck's Law; Thermodynamics of Blackbody Radiation by Robert E. Kelly; Photon Gas.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L23.
9 M See also Some paradoxes, errors, and resolutions concerning the spectral optimization of human vision by Bernard H. Soffer and David K. Lynch, Am. J. Phys. 67(11), November 1999;
Why are there no green stars? - Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy Blog; Partition function of hydrogen.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L24.
11 W See also VI. Quantum Statistical Mechanics from MIT OpenCourseware.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L25.
13 F Zoom video; Lecture notes: L26.
16 M Read Schroeder chapter 8 before class.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L27.
18 W Zoom video; Lecture notes: L28.
20 F Zoom video; Lecture notes: L29.
23 M Read Schroeder sections 5-3-5.6 before class.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L30.
25 W Thanksgiving Break
27 F Thanksgiving Break
30 M No class
Dec 2 W Watch Degenerate Fermi Gas 1/2 before class.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L31.
4 F Watch Degenerate Fermi Gas 2/2 before class.
Zoom video; Lecture notes: L32.
10 R Final Examination
Lecture notes:
- 24Aug15.
- 26Aug15. See also Temperature from Wikipedia;
The Mechanical Universe: 45. Temperature and Gas Laws;
Comparison of temperature scales.
- 28Aug15. See also Perpetual Motion Machine,
Perpetual Motion from Wikipedia,
Rachet and Pawl from the Feynman Lectures.
- 31Aug15. See also First Law by Professor Valery Kiryukhin at Rutgers.
- 02Sep15. See also Third Law of Thermodynamics,
Carnot Engine; Mechanical Universe episode 46;
Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle;
The Einstein Szilard Refrigerators
- 04Sep15. See also A Mnemonic Scheme for Thermodynamics
by J.-C. Zhao, MRS Bulletin, Volume 34, Feb 2009 and Legendre transformation.
- 09Sep15. See also Maxwell relations,
Gaussian Integrals.
- 11Sep15. See also Stirling's approximation.
- 14Sep15. See also Unit sphere,
Kinetic theory of gases.
- 16Sep15. See also Lagrange multipliers.
- 18Sep15. See also Partition Function.
- 21Sep15.
- 23Sep15. See also Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
- 25Sep15. See also Pierre Curie's Law.
- 28Sep15.
See also Below Absolute Zero: Negative Temperatures Explained,
Negative temperature,
What is negative temperature?.
- 30Sep15. See also Sackur-Tetrode Equation.
Gibbs paradox
- 02Oct15. See also Practice problems,
Cumulant generating function.
- 05Oct15.
- 09Oct15. See also
- 14Oct15. See also
- 16Oct15.
- 19Oct15. See also Ultraviolet catastrophe
- 21Oct15. See also Black body radiation,
Planck's Law, Thermodynamics of Blackbody Radiation by Robert E. Kelly. Photon Gas.
- 23Oct15. See also Some paradoxes, errors, and resolutions concerning the spectral
optimization of human vision by Bernard H. Soffer and David K. Lynch, Am. J. Phys. 67(11), November 1999, Why are there no green stars? - Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy Blog
- 26Oct15. Partition function of hydrogen.
- 28Oct15. See also The Spin-Statistics Theorem
- 30Oct15. See also
Clebsch-Gordan Coefficients,
Phonons,
Debye specific heat,
Dulong-Petit law.
- 02Nov15. See also PHYS 5337/6338 lecture notes.
- 04Nov15. See also
- 06Nov15.
See also Heat Capacity of a Free Electron Fermi Gas.
- 09Nov15.
- 11Nov15.
- 13Nov15.
- White Dwarfs - guest lecture by Farley Ferrante
- 16Nov15.
See also Bose-Einstein condensate,
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001,
BEC animation,
Bose-Einstein Condensates with Rubidium Atoms.
- 18Nov15.
- 20Nov15.
See also Van der Waals equation,
vdW Slides,
Cluster Expansion.
- extra van der Waals notes.
- 23Nov15.
- 30Nov15.
- 02Dec15. See also
- 04Dec15. See also
- 07Dec15.
- There are more cosmic photons than cosmic neutrinos
- Why is the sky blue?
- Black sky on the Moon
- Rayleigh scattering
Strutt, J.W (1871). "XV. On the light from the sky, its polarization and colour". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 41 (271): 107–120. doi:10.1080/14786447108640452.
Strutt, J.W (1871). "XXXVI. On the light from the sky, its polarization and colour". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 41 (273): 274–279. doi:10.1080/14786447108640479.
Strutt, J.W (1871). "LVIII. On the scattering of light by small particles". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 41 (275): 447–454. doi:10.1080/14786447108640507.
Rayleigh, Lord (1881). "X. On the electromagnetic theory of light". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 12 (73): 81–101. doi:10.1080/14786448108627074.
Rayleigh, Lord (1899). "XXXIV. On the transmission of light through an atmosphere containing small particles in suspension, and on the origin of the blue of the sky". The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 47 (287): 375–384. doi:10.1080/14786449908621276.
- PHYS 7312 lecture 39
- PHYS 7312 lecture 40
- xkcd Sky Color
- Some paradoxes, errors, and resolutions concerning the spectral optimization of human vision
by Bernard H. Soffer and David K. Lynch, Am. J. Phys. 67(11), November 1999
- Color sensitivity of the human eye
- Mie_scattering
- Human color vision and the unsaturated blue color of the daytime sky by Glenn Smith, American Journal of Physics 73, 590 (2005); https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1858479
- Why is water blue?
Back to the Physics 3374 Home Page
