Thermodynamics / Statistical Mechanics

Fall 2023 Syllabus

Aug 21 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

    23 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

    25 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
         Joseph Black and Latent Heat
         Credit Where It's Due 32 minutes, Connections by James Burke


    28 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;

    30 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;

Sep  1 F The Carnot Engine.  Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle; The Einstein Szilard Refrigerators.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L06; L06new;
         Sadly Cannot cycle


     4 M No class.

     6 W Read Schroeder sections 2.1-2.4 before class.  Heat capacities; Adiabats; Carnot Efficiency; Clausius theorem
         Watch Episode 47: Entropy - The Mechanical Universe
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L06;L06new;

     8 F Read Schroeder sections 2.5-2.6 before class.  Thermodynamic Potentials; Legendre transformation.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L07;L07new;


    11 M 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; Lecture notes: L07;

    13 W Read Schroeder sections 5.1-5.2 before class.  Gaussian Integrals; Stirling's approximation.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L08; L08new;

    15 F 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 M Read Schroeder sections 3.4-3.6 before class.  Kinetic theory of gases.  See also N-sphere from Wikipedia.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L09; L09b.

    20 W Watch ph12c lecture02 entropy before class.  See also Lagrange multipliers.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L10.

    22 F Watch ph12c lecture03 Boltzmann before class.  See also POSTNET.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L11; Polytropes.


    25 M Read Schroeder sections 6.1-6.2 before class.  See also Partition Function.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L12.


    27 W Read Schroeder sections 6.3-6.4 before class.  See also Root mean square.
         Zoom video; Lecture notes: L13; L13new.

    29 F Read Schroeder sections 6.5-6.7 before class.  See also Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
         Zoom video - Speaker view; Zoom video - Shared screen;  Lecture notes: L13.


Oct  2 M Watch ph12c lecture04 ideal gas before class.  See also Ensembles.
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: Ensembles.

     4 W Watch ph12c lecture05 Planck before class; See also Pierre Curie's Law.
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L14.

     6 F Midterm Exam - online in the lecture time slot, open book, open notes.



     9 M Fall Break

    11 W Watch ph12c lecture06 Debye before class;
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L15, L15b.

    13 F Watch ph12c lecture07 Gibbs before class;
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L15; Partition function supplementary notes.



    16 M 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, Chemical Potential for an Ideal Gas.

    18 W Watch ph12c lecture08 indistinguishable before class;
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L16.

    20 F 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.  Blackbody radiation.
         Matt Parker 3-sided coin


    23 M 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.

    25 W Read Schroeder section 7.3 before class.
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L19.

    27 F 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;  


    30 M Watch ph12c lecture10 Bose before class;
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L21.

Nov  1 W Watch ph12c lecture11 BEC before class;
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L21, QM rotations.

     3 F 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.  Kelvin and the end of physics.
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L22. Heat Capacity of a Crystal. Einstein-Debye


     6 M 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.

     8 W 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. Degenerate Fermi Gas

    10 F See also VI. Quantum Statistical Mechanics from MIT OpenCourseware.
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L25; new L25.


    13 M Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L26.

    15 W Read Schroeder chapter 8 before class. 
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L27.

    17 F Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L28.
         Spin isomers of hydrogen


    20 M Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L29.
    22 W Thanksgiving Break
    24 F Thanksgiving Break


    27 M Read Schroeder sections 5-3-5.6 before class. 
         Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L30. Superconductivity from the Feynman Lectures, audio.

    29 W Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L31.

Dec  1 F Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L32.
         Critcal point for phase transition


     4 M Zoom video;  Lecture notes: L33.


    07 R Final Examination - online - Thursday 7 December 2023, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM, open book, notes.