Oct 09, 2024  
2023-2024 Undergraduate Calendar 
    
2023-2024 Undergraduate Calendar [ARCHIVED CALENDAR]

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PHY 3010U – Statistical Mechanics


The course introduces students to the statistical behaviour of physical systems with large numbers of particles and degrees of freedom. This course shows how macroscopic thermodynamics can be explained by a statistical treatment of microscopic interactions, both classical and quantum. The course will introduce the dynamical basis of temperature, entropy, chemical potential and other thermodynamic quantities. Topics include: the kinetic theory of gases; statistical thermodynamics; classical and quantum statistics; Boltzmann and Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions; the classical statistical treatment of an ideal gas; the heat capacity of a diatomic gas; the heat capacity of a solid.
Credit hours: 3
Lecture hours: 3
Prerequisite(s): PHY 2030U  and (PHY 2050U  or CHEM 2040U 



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