PHYS 416 Class Info

This page contains links to information for the PHYS 416 course (Thermal and Statistical Physics).

Last time I taught a similar class (including tests with solutions).

To get an excused absence for a test, it must be official through the Office of the Dean of Students.

TEST 1 will be Thur Oct 2 and will cover Chap 1 through Chap ??. Bring your book and a nongraphing, dumb calculator (can only do logs, trig functions, exponentials, powers, roots; one or two line TI-30X and TI-36X models; if you are uncertain, ask me; similar to this rule).

TEST 2 will be Thur Nov 20 and will cover Chap ?? through Chap ??. Bring your book and a calculator.

FINAL will be ??? from ???-??? in PHYS??? The final will be comprehensive. Bring your book and a calculator.

The text book for the class is An Introduction to Thermal Physics by Daniel V. Schroeder. The tests are open textbook so you must have access to a physical copy (not electronic because you can't have open laptop during test); printout of relevant pages are OK as long as they only have info from the book.

See warning at https://physics.weber.edu/thermal/ about abridged international versions! Beware!!

We will cover most of Chaps 1-7. Course description.

Syllabus

Office hours: Wednesday 2:00-3:00, Thursday 2:00-3:00 (Contact me by email if you want to arrange a special time.)

Homework will be due by midnight on Thursdays. You must show enough work on the homework so the grader can understand what you're doing.


Chap 1,
Chap 2, einstein_model.xls, einstein_model.xlsx, einstein_model_class.xlsx, einstein_model.ipynb, max_boltz_vs_number.ipynb, scatter_boltz.ipynb,
Chap 3, paramagnetic.ipynb,
Chap 4,

Fundamentals: k_B = ?; T_K = ? for room, sun, coldest; M of N₂?; Atm. Pressure; Size of atom/molecule; Number density of atoms/molecules in air/liquid/solid; units of concepts (for example, specific heat, latent heat, enthalpy, entropy...), Stirling's approximation

Very short answers to the homework will be posted in brightspace under the content button in brightspace. These are the steps I used to solve. There are not a lot of intermediate steps, but it might help with understanding what you did incorrectly.

HWK 1 (Due Thu Aug 21, 9 problems total):
Chap 1: 1, 4, 12, 14, 16, 17 (for part d just use the 100 and 600 K points to get a and b and see how much error is at 300 K), 21, 23, 28(see specific heat pg 28 C=4.2 J/(degC g))