PHY252S:
Thermal Physics

New Information

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If you want to send me a suggestion anonymously, you can use the script at my UTOR webpage

Lecture notes

Please note: these are handwritten because I have bad computer-overuse-injuries and cannot type them up.

• Mon 07 and Wed 09 Jan KK Chap 1, pp07-20
• Mon 14 Jan KK Chap 1, pp20-26
• Wed 16 Jan KK Chap 2, pp29-39
• Mon 21 Jan KK Chap 2, pp39-50 and Chap 3, pp58-61
• Wed 23 Jan KK Chap 3, pp62-68
• Mon 28 Jan KK Chap 3, pp68-76
• Wed 30 Jan KK Chap 3, pp76-78 and Chap 4, pp89-94
• Mon 04 Feb KK Chap 4, pp 94-98
• Wed 06 Feb KK Chap 4, pp 102-110
• Mon 11 Feb KK Chap 5, pp 118-126
• Wed 13 Feb KK Chap 5, pp 129-134
• Mon 04 Mar KK Chap 5, pp 134-140
• Wed 06 Mar was problem-solving from Chap.5
• Mon 11 Mar KK Chap 6, pp 151-160
• Wed 13 Mar KK Chap 6, pp 161-171
• Mon 18 Mar KK Chap 7, pp 182-186
• Wed 20 Mar KK Chap 7, pp 186-193 and 196-198
• Fri 22 Mar KK Chap 7, pp 194-196 (and Chap 3 104-106)
• Mon 25 Mar KK Chap 7, pp 199-207 and 217
• Fri 05 Apr KK Chap 7, 212-217
• Mon 08 Apr KK Chap 8 first little bit (non-examinable)

• Midterm exam review notes
• Final exam review notes

Assessment

Like last year, the final grade will be a 60%-40% 'flip-flop' split of your term grade and your final exam grade, with the weighting in favour of the better grade. The term grade is computed as 40% homeworks and 60% midterm.

The midterm was on Friday 1st March, in-class. Last year's is available in PDF format (and here are partial solutions). The solutions to this year's (corrected) midterm are here .

The final exam was on Monday 22nd April from 9am-noon. For exam schedule details, see the FA&S web schedule . For the final, a calculator and an aid sheet are allowed. This aid sheet must be handwritten and may be written on both sides of the paper (size-reduction using a machine is NOT permitted!). Here is the 2000 final exam .

Regarding homework . You are encouraged to discuss course material with other students, but all homework assignments must be done individually.
You will have two weeks to do each homework assignment. Homeworks will be due at 11:10am (the beginning of class) as follows:

• HW#1, posted Wed 16 Jan, due Wed 30 Jan [Solutions #1, posted Mon 04 Feb]
• HW#2, posted Wed 06 Feb, due Wed 27 Feb [Solutions #2, posted Wed 27 Feb]
• HW#3, posted Wed 06 Mar, due Wed 20 Mar [Solutions #3, posted Mon 25 Mar]
  [Note: there are 8 qualititative definitions and 6 quantitative problems]
• HW#4, posted Wed 27 Mar, due Wed 10 Apr [Solutions #4, posted Mon 13 Apr]

For important university deadlines and dates, see the Faculty of Arts and Science Calendar . For a handy summary of date information, see this colour-coded table .

General Information

Regular office hours for myself and the TA are listed at the top of this page. You may also make an appointment (by e-mail) to see me individually, if you cannot attend my regular office hours.

The text is Kittel and Kroemer, Thermal Physics . Copies are on sale in the UofT Bookstore. You might find enlightening the previous year's Prof's opinions on the text and references for this course.

Material(from the course catalogue): "This is a core physics course for the Major and Specialist Programmes. This course is designed to explain macroscopic interactions using statistical concepts. The course will discuss the dynamical basis of temperature, entropy, chemical potential and other equilibrium thermodynamic quantities. The statistical methods will be illustrated by examples in which quantum statistics is essential in understanding the macroscopic behaviour. Topics covered will be: The quantum statistical basis of macroscopic systems; definition of entropy in terms of the number of accessible states of a many-particle system leading to simple expressions for absolute temperature, the canonical distribution, and the laws of thermodynamics; specific effects of quantum statistics at high densities and low temperatures."

Interesting trivia: Boltzmann's headstone carries his formula for the entropy S in terms of the degeneracy W. You can find the picture here .

FYI Here are the transparencies from the Wednesday 3rd April lecture .