THERMODYNAMICS AND STATISTICAL MECHANICS.

Catalog description

Topics in classical thermodynamics include the laws of thermodynamics, Gibbs' and Helmholtz's free energies, the Maxwell relations, heat capacities, entropy change calculations, phase and chemical changes. Statistical mechanics centers on the partition function and its applications, such as the entropy of an ideal gas, the Maxwell velocity distribution, the heat capacity of a solid, photon statistics, and blackbody radiation. Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics. Prerequisite: PHYS 3313 and MATH 2326 or permission of the instructor.