The schedule is tentative and may be adjusted depending on the progress of the class.

1.

Introduction

1.1

What is thermal physics?

1.2

Physical description of large systems (Blundell + Blundell chapter 1)

1.3

Probability (chapter 3)

1.4

Heat (chapter 2)

1.5

Temperature and the Boltzmann factor (chapter 4)

2.

Kinetic gas theory

2.1

Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution (chapter 5)

2.2

Ideal gas (chapter 6)

2.3

Effusion (chapter 7)

2.4

Collisions (chapter 8)

3.

Thermodynamics

3.1

First law (chapters 11, 12)

3.2

Second law (chapters 13, 14)

3.3

Thermodynamic potentials (chapter 16)

3.4

Rods, bubbles, and magnets (chapter 17)

3.5

Third law (chapter 18)

4.

Statistical mechanics

4.1

Partition function (chapter 20)

4.2

Statistical mechanics of the ideal gas (chapter 21)

4.3

Equipartition theorem (chapter 19)

4.4

Chemical potential (chapter 22)

5.

Beyond the ideal gas

5.1

Black-body radiation (chapter 23)

5.2

Phonons (chapter 24)

5.3

Phase transitions (chapter 28)

5.4

Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions (chapter 29)

5.5

Quantum gases and condensation (chapter 30)