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PHYSICS 400: statistical and thermal physics, fall 2008
Tim Gfroerer, Davidson College
Office Hours: TT 8:30 – 10:00 am and 2:30 – 4:30 pm (and more generally, most other normal working hours when I'm not preparing for or teaching a class or lab). Questions naturally arise in the process of learning and doing physics. In fact, the really good questions are what keep physicists going. I expect you to have lots of questions and I hope that you will come by my office talk to me about them.
Course
webpage:
I will post announcements, simulations, assignments, and solutions here. Objectives: By the time you reach this course, you will have learned some very powerful techniques for treating one (and perhaps 2 or 3) particle physical systems. You may have discovered that we cannot obtain a closed form solution for the motion of a system consisting of more than 2 interacting objects, even when the interaction is relatively simple. However, most real physical systems consist of vast quantities of objects that are all simultaneously interacting with each other. How can we possibly deal with this situation? The answer lies in statistics, where the dynamics are calculated using probability theory. Indeed, when the number of particles is very large (say, on the order of 1023), the statistical approach is extraordinarily precise. Methods for determining the average properties of such systems were developed in the latter part of the 19th century by Boltzmann, Maxwell, Gibbs, Liouville, and others. The analyis was extended in the 20th century to accomodate quantum mechanics. Physics 400 is a survey of these techniques and the many applications where these techniques are found to be useful. In particular, we will discuss:
Class Discussion: Attendance at and participation in class discussions are critical for
learning new physics. Reading the
relevant sections before class will definitely facilitate this part of the learning process.
The College’s 25% rule on attendance will be
in effect. Homework: Probability and statistics (along with the hopefully familiar multi-variable calculus) will enable us to solve new kinds of problems. As you know, building problem solving skills takes lots of practice. To this end, I will assign a substantial amount of homework. I encourage you to work together on the homework sets, but you must participate in the process of obtaining the solution to each problem. When working with a partner, keep in mind that reviews and the final will test your individual problem-solving ability. Do not consult solution manuals, solution sets, or another student’s work from any previous class. Always show your arguments, realizing that clarity and neatness count. Homework will be collected for grading at the beginning of class on the dates designated and late homework will not be accepted.
Seminar Attendance: Seminars broaden your scientific perspective and show you how physics is being used in the world beyond Davidson. Attendance at all physics seminars is required. Reviews and Final Project: We will have 2 closed-book, closed-notes take-home reviews, tentatively scheduled for the weeks of 9/29 and 11/24. When taking these reviews, you should ensure that all relevant resources are stowed beyond reach. Do not consult reviews from any other offering of Physics 400. A final project, culminating in a class presentation, will conclude the course. Computers: As you know, programs like Mathematica can simplify traditional mathematical operations like
differentiation, integration, series expansion, and vector analysis.
Indeed, these applications can use numerical methods to solve problems that do
not have an analytical solution. The programs (and spreadsheet
applications like Excel) include graphical tools that can
be used to calculate and plot functions of interest so that we can visualize
the behavior of our solutions. You
will be expected to use a computer to perform some of these operations in this course
and you should use these programs to
solve or check homework problems whenever you think they might help. Be
sure to clearly document your usage of these programs.
Please
be aware that you cannot use a computer on
reviews. Grading:
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