Thermal Physics

Catalog description

Fundamental principles of thermodynamics, kinetic theory and statistical mechanics at the advanced level. Topics generally included are the ideal gas, equipartition of energy, work and heat, heat capacities, latent heat and enthalpy, the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, entropy, the Carnot cycle, the Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies, phase transformations, the Clausius Clapeyron equation, Boltzmann statistics, the Maxwell speed distribution, the Gibbs factor, bosons and fermions, the Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein distributions, white dwarf stars and neutron stars, blackbody radiation and the Planck spectrum, and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Three hours of lecture and up to two hours of problems. Pre-requisites: C or better in PHYS 374 and MATH 215.