Elementary Statistical Mechanics (444-0-01)

Instructors

Todd Robert Gingrich

Meeting Info

Technological Institute LG52: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

This graduate-level course develops a quantitative framework for characterizing equilibrium states of chemical, physical, and biological systems. The emphasis throughout will be on connecting behavior at macroscopic length scales, where most observations take place, and microscopic length scales, where material properties originate. Students should come away with a visceral understanding of: entropy, free energies, the relationships between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, and phase transitions. The topics are intrinsically technical and rely on some mathematical tools that may be unfamiliar, but effort will be made to keep things as simple as possible (and no simpler). To aid with the intuitive understanding, we will make use of computational techniques for simulating and visualizing these concepts, which will require that students have (or develop) some familiarity with basic computer programming.

Class Materials (Required)

Title: Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics, 1st edition
Author: David Chandler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195042771
Approx. price: $130 new, $60 used rental