Reading assignment

1. Reading assignment Handout: Understanding Thermodynamics By H. C. Van Ness

2. Reading assignment Handout: Understanding Thermodynamics By H. C. Van Ness • Next class we will discuss: • Van Ness article • What is a ‘System’? • What are we interested in measuring about • a System? • What is energy? • Quantization of energy.

3. Administrative Hmwk #1 Assigned today 1/14/05 Due Friday 1/21/05 Monday Jan 17th MLK Day, no class Wednesday Jan 19th I’m out of town. Aryo Roy will review probability statistics

4. Thermal Physics “Thermal physics is a difficult subject to learn, partly because of the subtleness of its concepts, the lack organizing mathematical statements analogous to Newton’s equations of motion in mechanics, and the paucity of models, other than the ideal gas, that can be solved by simple techniques.” Harvey Gould Clark University

5. Thermal Physics “Thermal physics is a difficult subject to learn, partly because of the subtleness of its concepts, the lack organizing mathematical statements analogous to Newton’s equations of motion in mechanics, and the paucity of models, other than the ideal gas, that can be solved by simple techniques.” Harvey Gould Clark University Challenge: Understanding concepts. Applying them to solve problems.

15. All defined with respect to the system!

16. “We would very much like to get rid of the surroundings because of their infinite complexity, but we can’t really ignore them. However, we can make our formula look like it deals only with the system. … by [associating] changes in the surroundings with the boundaries of the system.” H. C.Van Ness

23. 2 Experiments: first two failures of classical (Newtonian) mechanics

29. (behaves as a wave)