PHYS 203 Thermal Physics I Syllabus

Spring 2020 (aka 2019W)

Calendar Description

Fundamentals of thermodynamics and statistical physics; entropy, laws of thermodynamics, heat engines, free energy, phase transitions, Boltzmann statistics, quantum statistics.

This course is eligible for Credit/D/Fail grading. To determine whether you can take this course for Credit/D/Fail grading, visit the Credit/D/Fail website. You must register in the course before you can select the Credit/D/Fail grading option.

Credits: 4

Pre-reqs: One of PHYS 102, PHYS 108, PHYS 118, PHYS 158, PHYS 153, SCIE 001.

Co-reqs: One of MATH 217, MATH 200, MATH 226, MATH 253, MATH 263.

Instructors

Professor: Joanna Karczmarek

Office: Hennings 400
Office Phone: 604-822-2929
Email: joanna AT phas.ubc.ca
Homepage
PHYS 203 Office Hours: Mon 10:30-11:30am, Wed 10:30-11:30am.
I am happy to see students any time I am in the office, so drop by and introduce yourself.

Teaching Assistant: TBA

Learning sources and References

Required Textbook: "Thermal Physics" by Daniel V. Schroeder.

Any undergraduate textbook on thermodynamics and/or statistics can be used as an additional learning source. Your first year textbook might be a great place to start!

Complementary online learning sources will be linked from the course content table.

Grading scheme and policies

Participation in class is expected. Material might be covered that is not available anywhere else. In-class worksheets and clicker questions will be used extensively.

Together with lecture material, Weekly Practice assignments are designed to prepare you for the typical questions on tests. Problem Sets, together with extension questions on in-class worksheets, are aimed at the harder test questions (comprising about 20% of a test or exam).

Lecture participation	6%	Clicker questions will be asked in lectures, including at the very start of the lecture. To encourage discussion, your grade will depend on the number of questions you participate in, not on whether or not your answers were correct. You will need to answer at least 90% of all questions to receive full marks; no further accomodations will be given for short terms absenses due to illness or other committments. This grade might also include completion of in-class worksheets. Extended absenses from lectures, such as those due to serious illness, will be taken into account when computing this grade.
Weekly Practice	10%	The Weekly Practice assignments will be due every Tuesday, and will give you an opportunity to apply concepts learned in Lectures. The assignments will be on-line, but you will often need access to the textbook to complete them. You will be given multiple chances to get correct answers. Your lowest Weekly Practice score will be dropped when computing your final grade. All Weekly Practice assignments carry equal weight, independent of the number of questions on each. Group discussion of these assignments is encouraged, but you must yourself obtain the answers you enter online. While working with other students, you may share your thinking and compare answers with them. You may not make your final answers available to others, or ask others to make their answers available to you.
Tests	30%	There will be three tests, each worth 10% of the final grade. If a scheduled test falls on one of your religious holidays, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can make alternative arrangements. A notice of at least two weeks is required.
Problem Sets	4%	There will be a total of 4 Problem Sets. If you cannot make it to class when a Problem Set is due, you need to either: hand in the PS ahead of time or email scans or images of your completed homework (please hand in your hard copy as soon as possible). Late (even by an hour) Problem Sets will not be accepted for credit under any circumstances, since solutions will be posted immediately after the due date. If you do not hand in your Problem Set on time, you will get a zero on that Problem Set. In exceptional circumstances the zero you get on a late Problem Set will not count towards your grade. I will require advance notice of such circumstances or a proof of the emergency (doctors notes and police records are good proofs), and you must still finish the Problem Set you missed. Excuses such as `I was really busy with other courses' will not be accepted. Group discussion of Problem Sets is encouraged, but the solutions you hand in must be your own work. This means you should not be looking at anybody else's notes or assignment while writing up your solutions. If asked questions, you may share your thinking with classmates, but not your completed Problem Set.
Final exam	50%	The final exam will test material covered by the Lectures (including Worksheets), Weekly Practice assignments and Problem Sets.
Total	100%	In case of improved performance, final exam mark might be used to replace the test component of the grade.

Course outline

The outline below should help give you the big picture of what we'll discuss in the course. You may want to refer back to this during the course to see how the current topic fits into the big picture, and also see where we're going. Some of the descriptions will probably make more sense after we have begun discussing that topic.

PART IA: Preliminaries, Statistical Mechanics

We will start with an understanding of fluctuations in large random systems. We will then discuss the Fundamental Assumption of Statistical Mechanics, the zeroth law of Thermodynamics, and the difference between systems with fixed energy and fixed temperature. We will derive the Boltzmann factor, define the partition function and learn how to compute the energy stored in a system given its temperature. We will also learn how to construct partition functions for large systems from the partition functions of their components.

PART IB: Fundamentals of Thermodynamics

We will start by carefully introducing the basic concepts of thermal physics: thermal equilibrium, temperature and heat. We will state the first law of Thermodynamics, and examine the conceptual differences and connections between energy, heat and work. We will derive properties (equation of state and internal energy) of ideal gas, then use those to study compression work under varying conditions. We will discuss changes in ideal gas under different conditions: constant temperature, constant volume, constant pressure and adiabatic. As an application, we will learn how to compute the efficiency of a heat engine.

PART IC: Putting Statistical Mechanics and Thermodynamics together

We will introduce the concept of entropy, and tie it with the second law of thermodynamics. We will discuss temperature, pressure and chemical potential in terms of entropy, and introduce the fundamental identity of thermodynamics. We will discuss reversible and irreversible processes, mixing and identical particles. We will also revisit Boltzman factors and the partition function. Together, we should have a complete picture of how classical thermodynamics arises out of Statistical Mechanics.

PART II: Thermodynamics

In this part of the course, we will learn more thermodynamics and apply it to real life systems. We will discuss a variety of thermodynamical concepts such as free energy, Gibbs free energy, maxwell identities and chemical equilibrium. Using these, we will undestand phases of matter and phase transformations. Then, we will discuss heat engines and refrigerators: thermal systems that run in a cycle. We will discuss theoretical limits on the efficiency of such cyclical processes and study the internal combustion engine, the steam engine and real refrigerators.

PART III: Statistical Mechanics

In the third part of the course, we will return to the microscopic point of view. We will link the central concept of a partition function to free energy. We will then derive results for several important classical and quantum mechanical systems: we will prove the equipartition theorem, derive the ideal gas law and study the heat capacity of solids. We will then allow the number of particles in a system to vary and introduce the Fermi-Dirac and the Bose-Einstein distributions. As applications, we will derive the blackbody spectrum, and examine quantum gases, including electrons in a metal and Bose-Einstein condensation. In the process, we will become comfortable with the tools of statistical mechanics and learn how to extract macroscopic thermodynamic data from a microscopic description.

Possible Special Lectures

The Thermodynamics of Black Holes
Shannon Information Theory
Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics

Learning Goals

The broad learning outcomes of the course are: a conceptual understanding of thermal physics, and the ability to apply this understanding to solve problems in a large variety of theoretical and real-life systems. In particular, you should:

develop an understanding of the the basic concepts of thermodynamics (temperature, heat, entropy, free energy, etc...) and of the laws that govern them;
develop an appreciation of the universality of the laws of thermodynamics;
understand and be able to analyze qualitatively a variety of real life applications of thermodynamics, from phase transitions to engines, refrigerators and batteries;
understand the interplay of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics: how the universal laws of thermodynamics arise from stat mech via the connection between disorder and entropy;
understand and be able to apply to a new system the basic machinery of statistical mechanics (how to sum over all states with the appropriate weighting, and how to extract thermodynamic quantities from a stat mech calculation);
be able to analyze several classical and quantum statistical systems (ideal gas, Einstein solid, paramagnet, black body radiation, Fermi gas) and understand their role in real life applications.

This course is also designed to improve many 'soft skills'. You will practice:

fitting newly gained information into a growing framework of understanding,
connecting conceptual understanding with quantitative (mathematical) expressions (equations),
reflecting on your learning and how it relates beyond this course: math courses, other physics courses, your understanding of how the universe works.

UBC provides resources to support student learning and to maintain healthy lifestyles but recognizes that sometimes crises arise and so there are additional resources to access including those for survivors of sexual violence. UBC values respect for the person and ideas of all members of the academic community. Harassment and discrimination are not tolerated nor is suppression of academic freedom. UBC provides appropriate accommodation for students with disabilities and for religious, spiritual and cultural observances. UBC values academic honesty and students ae expected to acknowledge the ideas generated by others and to uphold the highest academic standards in all of their actions. Details of the policies and how to access support are available here.

UBC takes academic misconduct (this includes copying of homework, cheating on exams and plagiarism) very seriously, and the penalties are stiff. Please check pages 48-49 and 54-55 of the calendar for official university regulations.