Thermal and Statistical Physics

By Prof. Carlson

Education Higher Education

What's Thermal and Statistical Physics about?

Physics 416

Purdue University

Textbook: Thermal Physics by Kittel and Kroemer

Lectures follow the text fairly closely, so if you're joining us from

iTunes, you might enjoy having a copy handy.

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Thermal and Statistical Physics episodes:

12.12.2005
Final Review 2
This is a final review for the last 1/4 of the course. This is a very short lecture, because we had a field trip to go see the prestigious Bagwell Lecture given by Purdue's very own Prof. Albert Overhauser of...
12.05.2005
Final Review 1
This is a final review for the first 3/4 of the course. Lecture Audio
12.01.2005
Lecture 24: Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem
We finish two more examples of the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem. This is a theorem that pops up everywhere! It means that the very same microscopic processes responsible for establishing thermal equilibrium are the same microscopic processes that cause resistance in metals,...
11.30.2005
Lecture23: Brownian Motion and Diffusion
Brownian motion was discovered by a botanist named Brown, when he looked at water under a microscope, and observed pollen grains "jiggling" about in it. Einstein eventually explained it as due to the random collisions the pollen grain experienced from...
11.16.2005
Lecture 22: Nucleation in First Order (Abrupt) Phase Transitions
Supercooling Demonstration (thanks to special guest Prof. Ken Ritchie): Put filtered water in a plastic bottle in your freezer for, say, 4 hours. Now, carefully remove it from the freezer, and shake the bottle vigorously. We did this, and saw...
11.15.2005
Lecture 21: Alloys, Mixing, and Phase Separation
Oil and water -- they don't mix. Or do they? Due to the entropy of mixing, any tiny amount of impurity is highly favored entropically. This means that in general, you can get a small amount of a substance to...
11.10.2005
Lecture 20: Landau Theory of Phase Transitions; Oil, Water, and Alloys
Now that we know what order parameters are (see last lecture), we'll use the order parameter of a phase to construct the Landau free energy. The Landau free energy depends on the order parameter, and retains all the symmetries of...
11.08.2005
Lecture 19: Symmetries, Order Parameters, and the Failure of Reductionism
We finish the van der Waals equation of state, and use it to illustrate the liquid-gas phase transition. It turns out that at low pressure, the van der Waals equation of state has a wiggle where (dp/pV)0. Since this would...
11.02.2005
Lecture 18: Van Der Waals and Geckos
We derive the shape of the phase boundary for solid to gas transitions (sublimation), examples being dry ice (CO2) or ice at low pressure. We derive the van der Waals equation of state, which is an improvement on the ideal...
10.31.2005
Lecture 17: Introduction to Phase Transitions
We finish discussing chemical reactions, including how fast they progress, and what a catalyst can do for you. Then we begin a new topic: phases of matter and phase transitions between them. You've heard of solid, liquid, and gas, but...
10.26.2005
Lecture 16: Gibbs Free Energy and Chemical Reactions
We define the Gibbs Free Energy, which is the right energy function to use when you can control temperature, pressure, and particle number. This means chemists like it, because chemical reactions in a lab often take place under these conditions....
10.24.2005
Lecture 15: Refrigerators and Path Dependence of Work
How refrigerators work. Why you can't cool your apartment by leaving the refrigerator door open. How heat and work depend on which path is taken. How to do completely meaningless work, the kind that's turned entirely into heat. We prove...
10.17.2005
Midterm Review
We're having a midterm exam Wednesday, and today is a review of everything in chapters 1-7 in the text, Kittel and Kroemer's Thermal Physics. Topics include: Fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics, Laws of Thermodynamics, Probabilities and the Partition Function, Entropy...
10.13.2005
Lecture 14: Engines
Storytime with Thursday Next (Jasper Fforde), and her Uncle Mycroft's entropy-detecting entroposcope. Why are large-scale systems capable of producing irreversible processes (like glass breaking, or red and blue Kool-aid mixing), even though the microscopic processes are reversible? We finish the...
10.05.2005
Lecture 13: Bose Condensates
More about Bose condensates. They're really weird -- at the lowest temperature, all bosons flock to the lowest available state, producing a "Bose condensate". Due to quantum mechanics, this is a remarkably stable state of matter, and is very hard...
10.03.2005
Lecture 12: Reversible and Irreversible Expansions
Now that we've derived absolutely everything about the ideal gas from scratch, it's time to do something useful with it! We'd like to eventually learn how to use this stuff to build engines and refrigerators. Today we discuss the basic...
09.28.2005
Lecture 11: Bose Gas and Ideal Gas
Review of Fermions and Bosons. Review of Fermi Gas. All about the Bose gas, and its ditsrubution function. In the classical limit, the Fermi-Dirac distribution function and the Bose-Einstein distribution function approach the same form, and we recover ideal gas...
09.26.2005
Lecture 10: Fermi-Dirac Distribution Function
Why no two pieces of matter may occupy the same space at the same time. Fermions are antisocial; bosons are social. Bosonic examples: lasers and superfluid helium. All about Fermions. Fermions obey the Pauli exclusion principle, and each state may...
09.21.2005
Lecture 9: Gibbs Factor and Gibbs Sum
When the system and reservoir can trade particles, you can't use the Boltzmann factor and the partition function anymore. Instead, use the Gibbs factor, and the grand partition function (or Gibbs sum). We introduce these new things, and then apply...
09.20.2005
Lecture 8: Chemical Potential
Introducing a new thermodynamically conjugate pair of variables: number of particles and chemical potential. Internal and external chemical potential. Voltmeters measure the total chemical potential. Great class brainstorm on internal voltages in your life. How to get a theory named...
09.15.2005
Lecture 7: Planck Blackbody Radiation
Deriving Planck's law of blackbody radiation. How to use it to tell the temperature of a star. Discussions about stars -- absorption lines and redshifts, and how to get the temperature correct anyway. Student demo of astronomy course software --...
09.13.2005
Lecture 6: Ideal Gas Law, Planck Blackbody Radiation
Deriving the ideal gas law. Equipartition Theorem. Entropy of Mixing. Hot things glow -- or how night vision goggles work (Planck blackbody radiation). Analyzing star spectra. Class discussions: Mixing 2 colors of Kool-Aid, and how to make heavy Kool-Aid out...
09.07.2005
Lecture 5: Free Energy and Maxwell Relations
Helmholtz Free Energy is the right energy to use when temperature and volume are used as control variables. Free Energy and the Partition Function. Maxwell Relations -- you can derive them all. Legendre Transforms. Ideal Gas. Quantum Concentration. Why some...
08.31.2005
Lecture 4: Partition Function and Thermodynamic Identity
Boltzmann Factor, Partition Function and how to calculate everything else from it. Live near lakes because they have a high heat capacity. Energy and Heat Capacity of a two state system, Definition of a reversible process, Definition of pressure, The...
08.30.2005
Lecture 3: Entropy, Temperature, and the Laws of Thermodynamics
Fundamental assumption of statistical mechanics: all accessible states are equally likely. Ensemble averages are weighted averages. Two systems in thermal contact. How to define entropy and temperature. How to take partial derivatives. The laws of thermodynamics. Lecture 3 Audio
08.24.2005
Lecture 2: Multiplicity Function
Why is the most probable configuration important? Multiplicity Function is a gaussian in the two-state system. Weighted averages. Introduction to partition function. Lecture 2 Audio
08.24.2005
Lecture 1: What is Statistical Mechanics and Why Does It Work?
Lightning fast review of quantum mechanics. Stationary quantum states, accessible states, fundamental assumptions of statistical mechanics. How to get from the microscopic quantum level to the macroscopic behavior you observe. We visualized atomic orbitals using Atom in a Box by...

What's Thermal and Statistical Physics about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Thermal and Statistical Physics episodes:

Final Review 2

Final Review 1

Lecture 24: Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem

Lecture23: Brownian Motion and Diffusion

Lecture 22: Nucleation in First Order (Abrupt) Phase Transitions

Lecture 21: Alloys, Mixing, and Phase Separation

Lecture 20: Landau Theory of Phase Transitions; Oil, Water, and Alloys

Lecture 19: Symmetries, Order Parameters, and the Failure of Reductionism

Lecture 18: Van Der Waals and Geckos

Lecture 17: Introduction to Phase Transitions

Lecture 16: Gibbs Free Energy and Chemical Reactions

Lecture 15: Refrigerators and Path Dependence of Work

Midterm Review

Lecture 14: Engines

Lecture 13: Bose Condensates

Lecture 12: Reversible and Irreversible Expansions

Lecture 11: Bose Gas and Ideal Gas

Lecture 10: Fermi-Dirac Distribution Function

Lecture 9: Gibbs Factor and Gibbs Sum

Lecture 8: Chemical Potential

Lecture 7: Planck Blackbody Radiation

Lecture 6: Ideal Gas Law, Planck Blackbody Radiation

Lecture 5: Free Energy and Maxwell Relations

Lecture 4: Partition Function and Thermodynamic Identity

Lecture 3: Entropy, Temperature, and the Laws of Thermodynamics

Lecture 2: Multiplicity Function

Lecture 1: What is Statistical Mechanics and Why Does It Work?