Term: September 2006
Lecturer:
Scott Oser
Class
coordinates: MWF 11-12, in Hebb 13
Office Hours:
Monday 9:30-10:00 and Thursday 11:00-12:00
TA: Rob
Pitcairn and Bojan
Ramadanovic
Prerequisites: MATH 200, and one of PHYS
102, PHYS 108, PHYS 153. You will also find it very useful to
remember your high school chemistry classes, and you are expected to
have learned and still remember all high school math.
Textbook:
An
Introduction to Thermal Physics, by Daniel V. Schroeder
A
common printing error: If the top of p. 86 of your textbook says
"Chapter 7", you have a not-so-rare
printer's error. You can download and print
out the correct p. 86 here
Supplemental material: You
may also find these books enlightening:
Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics, by F. Reif
Thermal Physics, by Charles Kittel
Introductory Statistical Mechanics, by Roger Bowley and Mariana Sanchez
Your grade will be determined by:
Homework |
20% |
Midterm 1 |
20% |
Midterm 2 |
20% |
Final Exam |
40% |
Homework: I strongly
believe that the best way to learn physics is to do homework
problems. Expect frequent, typically weekly, problem sets.
You are welcome to discuss problems informally with your classmates.
However, you must complete the assignment yourself, and if you
hand in obviously copied homework, you should expect a mark of zero
on that assignment, or worse. Assignments are due by the end of class
on the day they are due. There is no tolerance for late
assignments without proof of medical or tragic reason. I will
not accept late assignments. If you have a really good excuse
for why you won't be able to finish an assignment (for example, if
you're getting married, being arraigned on criminal charges, etc.), I
might be willing to accommodate you, but only if you ask ahead of
time (at least 2 days' notice). Don't come to me after the fact
or at the last minute. Being "really busy" is not a
valid reason for handing in HW late.
HW assignments, and
solution sets, will be posted at the bottom of this web page as they
become available.
Midterm #1: You may use a calculator and a handwritten (not photocopied) formula sheet (8.5”x11” maximum size, but you can use both sides)
Missed exams: There
will be two midterm exams in class. No makeup exams will be
offered. If you miss an exam with a legitimate excuse (proof of
illness, family emergency, etc), I will simply count the other
midterm for twice as much. If you miss a midterm exam without
proof of a legitimate excuse, then you get a score of zero on the
exam. No one will be excused from both midterms for any
reason.
Religious holidays: Students are entitled
to request an alternate test date if a scheduled test date falls on
one of their holy days. If you think this may apply to you,
please contact me as soon as possible to make an alternate
arrangement. Please don't put this off until the last
minute---you must give at least two week's notice.
FINAL
EXAM: The date for the final exam is Saturday December 9 at
8:30am, in SWNG 121. The full exam schedule is available here.
Syllabus: A tentative
lecture schedule follows. It will almost certainly be adjusted
as the course proceeds.
Lecture |
Date |
Topics Covered |
Reading Material |
Assignment Due (tentative) |
1 |
9/6 |
Class organization; Introduction; What is temperature? |
1.1 |
|
2 |
9/8 |
Temperature & energy; ideal gas law |
1.2 |
|
3 |
9/11 |
Equipartition theorem; heat, work & energy; compression of ideal gas |
1.3-1.5 |
|
4 |
9/13 |
Compression of ideal gas; heat capacity; enthalpy |
1.5-1.6 |
|
5 |
9/15 |
Second law of thermodynamics; the two-state system; Einstein solids |
2.1-2.2 |
|
6 |
9/18 |
Einstein solids; interacting systems |
2.2-2.3 |
|
7 |
9/20 |
Large systems; Stirling's Approximation; multiplicity of a large Einstein solid |
2.4 |
|
8 |
9/22 |
Multiplicity of an ideal gas |
2.5 |
|
9 |
9/25 |
Entropy |
2.6 |
|
10 |
9/27 |
Entropy of mixing; Gibbs paradox; entropic definition of temperature |
2.6, 3.1 |
|
11 |
9/29 |
Entropy and heat |
3.2 |
|
12 |
10/2 |
An exotic system: the two-state paramagnet |
3.3 |
|
13 |
10/4 |
Mechanical equilibrium and pressure |
3.4 |
|
14 |
10/6 |
Chemical equilibrium; the chemical potential; review for midterm |
3.5 |
|
|
10/9 |
NO CLASS - Thanksgiving |
|
|
|
10/11 |
MIDTERM 1 |
|
|
15 |
10/13 |
Idealized heat engines |
4.1 |
|
16 |
10/16 |
Ideal refrigerators; Realistic heat engines |
4.2-4.3 |
|
17 |
10/18 |
Realistic heat engines; steam engines; realistic refrigerators; throttling |
4.3-4.4 |
|
18 |
10/20 |
Realistic refrigerators |
4.4 |
|
19 |
10/23 |
Thermodynamic potentials; fuel cells |
5.1 |
|
20 |
10/25 |
Energetics of batteries; Maxwell relations |
5.1 |
|
21 |
10/27 |
Free energy & equilibrium; phase transitions |
5.2-5.3 |
|
22 |
10/30 |
Phase transitions; the Clausius-Clapeyron relation |
5.3 |
|
23 |
11/1 |
The Van der Waal's model |
5.3 |
|
24 |
11/3 |
The Boltzmann distribution |
6.1 |
|
|
11/6 |
Review for midterm |
|
|
25 |
11/8 |
Midterm 2 |
|
|
26 |
11/10 |
Computing average values with Boltzmann distributions |
6.2 |
|
|
11/13 |
Remembrance Day---No Class |
|
|
27 |
11/15 |
The equipartition theorem revisited; Maxwell velocity distribution |
6.2-6.4 |
|
28 |
11/17 |
Partition functions and free energy; composite partition functions |
6.6-6.6, 7.2 |
|
29 |
11/20 |
Intro to Quantum Statistics |
7.2 |
|
30 |
11/22 |
Black body radiation |
7.4 |
|
31 |
11/24 |
More black body radiation; cosmic microwave background |
7.4 |
|
32 |
11/27 |
Black hole thermodynamics |
|
|
33 |
11/29 |
Fermi gases |
7.3 |
|
34 |
12/1 |
Overflow/Review for Final |
|
|
|
TBD |
FINAL EXAM |
|
|
Due September 13 |
||
Due September 22 |
||
Due September 29 |
||
Due October 6 |
||
Due October 20 |
||
Midterm #1 |
October 11, 2006 |
|
Due October 27 |
||
Due November 3 |
||
Midterm #2 |
November 8, 2006 |
|
Due November 22 |
||
Due December 1 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scott Oser (email me) November 15, 2006