Physics 455 - Tentative Course Outline - Spring 1997

Week Date Ch. Topic(s)
1. Jan. 6 1, 2 Model Systems, Enumeration of States, Entropy, ...
2. Jan. 13 2, 3 Temperature, Equilibrium, Canonical Ensemble, ...
3. Jan. 20 3 Boltzmann Distribution, Helmholtz Free Energy, Partition Function, ...
4. Jan. 27 6, 8 Ideal Gases, Reversibility, Engines & Refrigerators
5. Feb. 3 5, 8, 9 Axiomatic Thermodynamics, Gibbs Free Energy, Enthalpy
6. Feb. 10 5, 9 Grand Canonical Ensemble, Gibbs Sum, Chemical Potential
7. Feb. 17 Spring Break followed by Midterm Exam
8. Feb. 24 4, 7 Planck Distribution, Radiation Laws, Bosons vs. Fermions
9. Mar. 3 7 Fermi Gases, Bose Condensates
10. Mar. 10 14 Kinetic Theory: Maxwell Distributions, ...
11. Mar. 17 14 Transport, Vacuum Technology
12. Mar. 24 10 Real Gases, Phase Transitions
13. Mar. 31 Overrun and Review

We will probably not get to cover Ch. 11 (Binary Mixtures), Ch. 12 (Cryogenics), Ch. 13 (Semiconductor Statistics) or Ch. 15 (Propagation), nor will we treat every subject in the Chapters we do cover. This unfortunate truncation is an inevitable result of trying to do Statistical Mechanics in one term.

ADVICE: Re-read the Introduction (pp. 1-4) every few weeks to review the "big picture." It is a very nice summary. Do not fall behind, because we are obliged to move fast and most topics draw heavily on preceding material.


Jess H. Brewer
Last modified: Fri Dec 4 17:43:59 PST 1998