SYllabus

PHY 401 Thermodynamics

Spring 2008

 

Review of background topics in thermodynamics

Instructor

 

Dr. Kendall Mallory                                          Phone:  (619) 849-2356

Department of Physics                          Email:  kmallory@pointloma.edu

 

Office hours:     10:00 to 11:30 Mon., Tues., Wed., and Thurs.

                        Other times as arranged

 

TexT

 

            Charles Kittel, Herbert Kroemer, Thermal Physics, W. H. Freeman and Company, 1980

 

Goals and Objectives

 

Catalog statement

 

PHY 401 (3) THERMODYNAMICS

Fundamental concepts of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics; applications to both classical and quantum systems. Offered 2007-08.
Prerequisite: Physics 242.
Recommended: Mathematics 334.

 

Thermal Physics - The study of large interacting systems, like solutions, materials, and solids.  These methods can be broken up into three classes:

 

·   Classical Thermodynamics – phenomenological study of the relationships between average thermodynamic measures of the states of systems, like temperature, pressure and volume.

 

·   Statistical Mechanics – statistical study of the probabilities of the states of large systems to develop the thermodynamic relationships governing their behavior.  Microscopic models of states are connected to thermodynamic quantities.

 

·   Kinetic Theory – detailed models of particle dynamics are used to develop models of the thermodynamic behavior of systems.

 

This course will emphasize methods of statistical mechanics but we will also review methods of classical thermodynamics and look at some kinetic theory.

Grading

 

Two mid term exams:    25 % each

Final exam, cumulative:             25 %

Homework:                              25 %

 

 

 

 

Outline of Course

 

Chapter 1

States of a Model System

Problems

 

Binary Model Systems

Average Values

 

Binomial and Multinomial Distributions

Chapter 2

Entropy and Temperature

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 3

Chapter 3

Boltzmann Distribution and Helmholtz Free Energy

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9

Chapter 4

Thermal Radiation and Planck Distribution

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 13

Chapter 5

Chemical Potential and Gibbs Distribution

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 6, 7, 10

Chapter 6

Ideal Gas

Problems

 

 

PV = NkBT

 

2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 14

Chapter 7

Fermi and Bose Gases

Problems

 

 

1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 14

Chapter 8

Heat and Work

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 3, 6, 8

Chapter 9

Gibbs Free Energy and Chemical Reactions

Problems

 

 

1, 3, 5

Chapter 10

Phase Transitions

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 3, 6, 7

Chapter 11

Binary Mixtures

Skip

 

 

 

Chapter 12

Cryogenics

Skip

 

 

 

Chapter 13

Semiconductor Statistics

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 11

Chapter 14

Kinetic Theory

Problems

 

 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

Chapter 15

Propagation

Skip