Statistical Mechanics

3.00 credits · Undergraduate

Prereq: PHYS 2251; MATH 2111; or permission of the Department This course examines the connections between the macroscopic thermodynamic properties of a system, such as pressure and temperature, and the microscopic details, such as the behavior of the atoms and molecules that make up the system. Starting from the number of accessible states and its relation to entropy, the familiar thermodynamic relations are derived. Maxwell-Boltzmann, Bose-Einstein, and Fermi-Dirac distributions are discussed along with the conditions under which they apply. (Format: Lecture 3 Hours)