General Information
Instructor:
TA:
R. Michalak,
Office
215 PS
E-mail rudim@uwyo.edu
N.A.
Office hours(RM): PS215, TR 11-12, 4-5 pm or by email appointment
Lecture:
Texts:
MWF 1 10 -2 00 pm
CR 113 required:
CR 113
Daniel Schroeder ‘An Introduction to Thermal Physics’
There are many other good texts out there. Here is a list of recommended texts:
Herbert B. Callen ‘Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics’ really good on thermodynamics, a bit short on Stat Mech
Richard Feynman ‘The Feynman Lectures’ vol 1 pt 2 the old standard text
Peter Atkins ‘Four Laws That Drive the Universe’ a conceptual overview of thermo only
H.C. van Ness ‘Understanding Thermodynamics’ basic, with a view on what students tend to misunderstand
Enrico Fermi ‘Thermodynamics’ short and competent
Kerson Huang ‘Introduction to Statistical Physics’ very dense and short, very good description of statistical physics, you must be willing to read between the lines (work through the text)
Max Born ‘Atomic Physics’ you should still have this one, make use of the appendices
Frederik Reif ‘Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics’ many places use this as the main text, it is however a bit on the difficult and mathematical side, very complete
Philip Morse ‘Thermal Physics’ old texts from the 60s are best for the thermo part
Webpage: You will find course related information on my website www.physics.uwyo.edu/~rudim
Course Content:
This course is an introduction to Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics. It builds on concepts learned in Phys 1220 or similar college courses. We will revisit core concepts from these pre-requisite courses, e.g. the First Law of Thermodynamics and the concept of specific heat, and we will expand on them, but a basic familiarity with the old material is expected. Quantum Mechanics (Phys 4310) and Classical Mechanics
(Phys 4210) are also pre-requisites to this course and concepts and principles from both courses will be employed. Time constraints do not allow for a review of CM or QM methods but the appendices in
Schroeder have a summary.
We study the Laws of Thermodynamics, Phase Transitions of Matter, the Kinetic Theory of Gases, and
Classical and Quantum Statistics.

Thermodynamics, Kinetic Theory, and Statistical Mechanics are all abstract and difficult subjects. Many teachers say that one can only really understand any part of it completely once one knows the whole. I have been working on ways to make the learning more efficient. This includes a certain lecture structure with interactive tasks and supervised reading. The method can only work, if students fully participate in them.
To encourage and award your independent reading, I have added some hw tasks that build specifically on reading.
A previous class found the text quite helpful and very readable. Please try to read the upcoming material ahead of time and understand it as best as possible. The material is often too difficult to understand it fully when meeting it for the first time. In lecture we shall be able to address any problems with the understanding.
All of the following information is tentative and I reserve the right to change any of it as seems
necessary to keep the class average on course. Such changes will be announced in class.
Lecture
Laboratory
Discussion
Three lectures per week, each 50 minutes.
N/A
N/A
Homework The HW is due at deadlines specified in the tentative schedule below. Late submissions will not be accepted, unless there is a university excuse or a valid doctor’s note.
HW that is not fully legible, has confused logic, or offers more than one solution will receive a reduced grade.
HW tasks include written summaries of handouts and text reading assignments or discussion questions regarding the same material. Handouts are provided during lecture.
If you miss a lecture, which provides students with a handout, it is your responsibility to make sure you learn about the existence of the handout and to collect it from me at my office in good time before the related work is due. There will be no extension of deadline because of missed handouts.
Communication with the students
I will make announcements in class when changes are made to the tentative schedule. It is the student’s duty to catch up with such news, if the student misses class. That is still true, if there is a valid university or other excuse for the student absence. On occasion, I may send an email to the class. It is the student’s duty to check the university email account in a timely manner to benefit from such information.

Grades
Homework:
Exams:
Scale:
7+3
3
40%
60%
A > 90.0%
B 89.9-80.0%
C 79.9-70.0%
D 69.9-60.0%
F < 60.0%
Grading Key I usually underline a passage and accompany it with a symbol that explains the kind of
$
+
*
^
!
(+)
[]
% mistake:
√
(√) correct mostly correct
~
≈
(-) somewhat correct vague incomplete or sudden end
-
# missing wrong
(/) misses the point, off topic
 original, imaginative, good illustration
:-(
˅
?
& sloppy, much too short repetitive, wordy confused or logic cannot be followed or lack of focus good research well organized or well structured mature writing precise or insightful or thoughtful concise, to the point strong reasoning furthers pov lack of structure or needs paragraph separation or abrupt change evidence missing or incomplete

B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
F
Grading of Reflective Writing
Grading categories: pov and organization
A
A-
B+
B development of point of view effective and insightful fully appropriate reason and evidence appropriate reason and evidence appropriate reason, lacking some evidence mostly appropriate reason, lacking some evidence some appropriate reason vague or insufficient reason has at least a pov deficient pov no viable pov no attempt to develop a pov
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C- organization all of A- and highly focused perfectly organized, coherent progression of ideas all of B and some coherence generally organized and focused generally organized some lack of focus somewhat organized some problem with progression of ideas incoherent
D+
D poor organization, unfocused disorganized
F disorganized to a degree that understanding compromised
Academic Honesty Don’t cheat. In the long run you are only hurting your chances at succeeding at college and in the major. The actual university rules:
“Academic dishonesty is defined in University Regulation 802, Revision 2 as “an act attempted or
performed which misrepresents one’s involvement in an academic task in any way, or permits another
student to misrepresent the latter’s involvement in an academic task by assisting the misrepresentation.”
There is a well-defined procedure in place to judge such cases and serious penalties may be assessed. A short common sense interpretation of the regulation could sound something like this: If it’s not your work, don’t pretend that it is.
n/b Under this University Regulation even an honest mistake is a mistake and not understanding one’s involvement in academic dishonesty is not an excuse.
Unlike in some of my other courses, homework is not group work. Consult your peers or me or a provider of worked solutions for the general method of how to approach a problem. Do not look up solutions for the actual hw problems. Make sure you work the main steps for your specific problem on your own after consulting the above listed allowed sources.

If you have a physical, learning, or psychological disability and require accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible. I will try to accommodate your condition as best as circumstances allow. You will need to register with University Disability Support Services (UDSS) in SEO, room
330 Knight Hall, 766-6189, TTY: 766-3073. If you choose to notify me late about such circumstances you may forfeit your right for special accommodation for that assignment.
Half way into the course I will review whether to offer a voluntary discussion section. Problems get so long that it is difficult to include them in lecture time. The time slot for that would be
F 2:10-3:00pm.

Week
1 Aug 31 – Sep 4
2 Sep 7 – Sep 11
3 Sep 14 – Sep 18
M
11:00-12:15
I
Readg, syll
-
Partials-1
W
11:00-12:15
Th.metry
Th. Eq. intro
F
Ch 1.1, 1.2
Deadlines etc.:
All hw to be emailed to rudim@uwyo.edu
Check all my calendar information with the official Registrar calendar.
HW1* due F 9/4 5pm – Reading Summary and Discussion
Ch 1.4, 1.5
Ch 1.4, 1.5
Labor Day 9/7
9/10 last day to drop/add
Partials-2
Ch. 1.6
HW2 due F 9/18 5pm
4 Sep 21 – Sep 25
5 Sep 28 – Oct 2
6 Oct 5 – Oct 9
7 Oct 12 – Oct 16
8 Oct 19 – Oct 23
Ch. 2.1
Ch. 2.4
Ch. 2.5
Ch. 3.1
Ch. 3.4
9 Oct 26 – Oct 30 Ch. 4.1, 4.2
10 Nov 2– Nov 6
12 Nov 16 – Nov 20
13 Nov23 – Nov27
Dec 14 – Dec 18
Ch. 5.1
11 Nov 9 – Nov 13 Ch. 5.4
Ch. 6.3, 6.4
Ch. 7.1, 7.2
14 Nov30 – Dec 4 Ch. 7.3
15 Dec 7 – Dec 11 Ch. 7.4
Ch. 2.2
Ch. 2.4
Ch. 2.6
Ch. 3.2
Ch. 3.4, 3.5
Ch. 4.4 (part)
Ch. 5.2
Ch. 5.4
Ch. 6.5, 6.6
-
Ch. 7.3
Ch. 7.5
W 1:15-3:15
Ch. 2.3
Ch. 2.5
Ch. 2.6
Ch. 3.3
Ch. 3.5
3 rd Law
Ch. 5.3
Ch. 6.1, 6.2
Ch. 6.7
-
Ch. 7.4
Ch. 7.5
HW3 due M 10/5 5pm
HW4 due M10/12 5 pm
Exam 1 R 10/15 CR 113 5pm
HW5* due F 10/23 5pm
Reading Summary and Discussion, Reflective Writing mid semester: Oct 23 midterm grades due on Oct28 th
HW6 due F 10/26 5pm
advising week, get your PERC
Exam 2 R 11/12 CR 113 5pm tentative
11/13 last day to withdraw from classes
HW7* due F 11/13 5pm Reading Summary , Discussion, Reflective Writing
HW8 due F 11/20 5pm
Thanksgiving break
11/25 last day to withdraw from school
HW9 due Monday 11/30 5pm
HW10 due F 12/11 5pm
Final exam all finals are in the regular classroom unless otherwise
announced final grades due 1/4/2016
Consult the deadline calendar on the Office of The Registrar webpage to double check my deadline dates.