Thermodynamics / Statistical Mechanics

Fall 2025 Syllabus

Aug 25 M Read Halliday, Resnick, and Walker chapters 18-20 before class.  Course information.  Introduction to Thermodynamics / Statistical Mechanics.
         Lecture notes: L01; Entropy sometimes BUT NOT ALWAYS means "disorder" Entropy and salad dressing

    27 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.
         Lecture notes: L02

    29 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.
         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


Sep  1 M No class.

     3 W 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.
         Lecture notes: L04;
	 
     5 F 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; 
         Lecture notes: L05;


     8 M The Carnot Engine.  Heat Engines: the Carnot Cycle; The Einstein Szilard Refrigerators.
         Lecture notes: L06; L06new;
         Sadly Cannot cycle

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

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


    15 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
         Lecture notes: L07;

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

    19 F Read Schroeder sections 3.1-3.3 before class.  Hyperareas and hypervolumes of N-dimensional spheres.  See also Unit sphere.
         Lecture notes: L08;


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

    24 W Watch ph12c lecture02 entropy before class.  See also Lagrange multipliers.
         Lecture notes: L10.

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


    29 M Read Schroeder sections 6.1-6.2 before class.  See also Partition Function.
         Lecture notes: L12.

Oct  1 W Read Schroeder sections 6.3-6.4 before class.  See also Root mean square.
         Lecture notes: L13; L13new.

     3 F Read Schroeder sections 6.5-6.7 before class.  See also Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.
         Lecture notes: L13.


     6 M Watch ph12c lecture04 ideal gas before class.  See also Ensembles.
         Lecture notes: Ensembles.

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

    10 F Watch ph12c lecture06 Debye before class;
         Lecture notes: L15, L15b.



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

    15 W Read Schroeder sections 7.1-7.2 before class.
         See also Below Absolute Zero: Negative Temperatures Explained, Negative temperature, What is negative temperature?.
         Lecture notes: L15, Chemical Potential for an Ideal Gas.

    17 F 

Professor Dalley will be taking over the course after this point.  I have left my notes below for your reference, but he will provide his own syllabus, notes, homework problems, etc.  Do not trust any of the dates below this note.



    20 M Fall Break

    22 W Watch ph12c lecture08 indistinguishable before class;
         Lecture notes: L16.

    24 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.
         Lecture notes: L16.  Blackbody radiation.
         Matt Parker 3-sided coin


    27 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
         Lecture notes: L19.

    29 W Read Schroeder section 7.3 before class.
         Lecture notes: L19.

    31 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.


Nov  3 M Watch ph12c lecture10 Bose before class;
         Lecture notes: L21.

     5 W Watch ph12c lecture11 BEC before class;
         Lecture notes: L21, QM rotations.

     7 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.
         Lecture notes: L22. Heat Capacity of a Crystal. Einstein-Debye


    10 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.
         Lecture notes: L23.

    12 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.
         Lecture notes: L24. Degenerate Fermi Gas

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


    17 M Lecture notes: L26.

    19 W Read Schroeder chapter 8 before class. 
         Lecture notes: L27.

    21 F Lecture notes: L28.
         Spin isomers of hydrogen


    24 M Lecture notes: L29.
    26 W Thanksgiving Break
    28 F Thanksgiving Break


Dec  1 M Read Schroeder sections 5-3-5.6 before class. 
         Lecture notes: L30. Superconductivity from the Feynman Lectures, audio.

     3 W Lecture notes: L31.

     5 F Lecture notes: L32.
         Critcal point for phase transition


     8 M Lecture notes: L33.


    11 R Final Examination Thursday 11 December 2025, 11:30 AM - 2:30 PM

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