Statistical and Thermal Physics (MP203) (Autumn 2012)

**There will be a revision tutorial for this course on Friday January 4, 2013, at 14:30.
Place (provisional): the Mathematical Physics Computer Lab in the Science Building, (number 17 on this Map of the North Campus)**

The exam is on Monday January 7, 9:30h in the Small Sports Hall

Note: Details on the assignments and on the material covered appear on the Weekly Schedule .

Instructor

Joost Slingerland
Office Department of Mathematical Physics, Room 1.7D, Science Building (number 17 on this Map of the North Campus)
e-mail: joost-at-thphys-dot-nuim-dot-ie

Tutor

Glen Burella
Office: Department of Mathematical Physics, Room 1.1, Science Building (number 17 on this Map of the North Campus)
e-mail: glen-dot-burella-at-nuim-dot-ie

Class meets

Lectures:
Tuesday, 11:05-11:55 in Hall H in the Arts Building, number 18 on this Map of the North Campus and
Thursday, 12:05-12:55 in Hall C in the Arts Building, number 18 on this Map of the North Campus
Tutorials
Tuesdays, 13:05-13:55 (after the Tuesday lecture), Hall C in the Arts Building, number 18 on this Map of the North Campus and
Thursdays, 13:05-13:55 (after the Thursday lecture), JH5 Lecture Theatre, John Hume Building, number 15 on this Map of the North Campus

The tutorials have been set up so that everyone can make at least one of them. However, you are welcome to attend both if you can.

Course content

We will study various aspects of statistical and thermal physics, including:

Thermal equilibrium and temperature.
Ideal gas law and kinetic theory of gases.
Work, heat and energy - first law of thermodynamics.
Statistics of large systems - Entropy and second and third law of thermodynamics.
Heat engines and refrigerators.
Systems in contact with a heat reservoir.
Equipartition. Specific heats of gases and solids.

A more accurate Weekly Schedule of material covered and exercises set will appear gradually as the course evolves.

Text:

We will use the following book:

# Title:An Introduction to Thermal Physics
# Author: Daniel V. Schroeder.

This is the main text for this course. You will need this book, so please buy it.

The book comes in hardcover or as a paperback "international edition" (I have the paperback, but I expect they are identical as far as the content is concerned):

# Hardcover: 422 pages
# Publisher: Addison Wesley; US ed edition (August 28, 1999)
# ISBN-10: 0201380277
# ISBN-13: 978-0201380279

# Paperback: 422 pages
# Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st International edition edition (2 Sep 2004)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 0321277791
# ISBN-13: 978-0321277794

This book also has its own webpage, maintained by the author. The bookshop should have some copies for you but if they run out you can also buy it online for about 40 euro.

Exam and Continuous Assessment

There will be a one and a half hour written examination at the end of Semester 1 which counts for 80% of the mark. Continuous Assessment (that is, hand-in exercises) makes up the remaining 20%. If the mark for continuous assessment is lower than the exam mark, then the exam counts for 100%

Homework

As with all courses in theoretical physics, you can only really learn the subject by practising it yourself. (Also, you could substitute "enjoy" for learn in the previous sentence and it would still be true). To help with this, there will be homework exercises every week (except for the first week). For this week's homework, see the Weekly Schedule

Roughly every second week, the homework exercises should be handed in (I will indicate which exercises are meant to be handed in). These homeworks will be marked and the results will count for 20% of the final mark, if they are better than the exam result. If the exam mark is better than the continuous assessment mark, then the exam mark is the final mark. Hence please hand in all your solutions; it can never hurt and it will almost certainly help.

Homework can be handed in directly to Glen (the tutor for the course) or to me, or it can be left in my pigeon hole in the mathematical physics department, Rm 1.11 (Monica Harte's office). Please make sure your homework shows some cohesion as well as your name and student number.

I encourage you to work on the homework in small groups; it is important to learn to communicate about the subject and it can be great fun (or at least shared frustration). However, please make sure you do fully understand the solutions to the problems and please write them up from scratch, in your own words.

Feedback

If you have questions, comments or suggestions for the lectures and the webpage (maybe you don't like green :)), then please send me an email. I can't promise to make everybody happy, but I will try.