Some Web sites of interest and relevance to Physics 404
Spring 2008
Chapter heading to be updated and coordinated
Many broken links fixed (or eliminated); please report any problems
Blundells' site for Concepts in Thermal Physics; listing of errors
Other downloadable books
D. Styer, Statistical Mechanics
R. Fitzpatrick, Thermodynamics & Stat Mech (html)
Schroeder's site for An Introduction to Thermal Physics:
List of important equations in Schroeder
from The Onion, for your amusement:
Earth rotation plunges continent into darkness
Collection of simulations:
Java Simulations for Statistical and Thermal Physics from Gould and Tobochnik's excellent curriculum development
General references:
Wikipedia: thermodynamics, statistical thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, ...
Compendium of sites for Stat Mech & Thermo, also Nano, Quantum
Hyperphysics subsite on Heat & Thermodynamics: lots of nice calculational modules
Basics:
1. Permutations and combinations, elementary review and alternative, with binomial coefficients
1. Combinations (wikipedia, terse)
1. Binomial distribution applet
1. Stirling's approximation (wikipedia)
2. Cute applet about heat capacity
2. Heat capacity (wikipedia)
3. Normal probability calculator
3. Binomial and normal distributions, from Rice U.
4. Clear, succinct, elementary discussion of thermal expansion
4. Mathematica-generated sketch of sharpening of macrostate distribution with N
4. Ideal atmosphere applet (cf. example 4.4)
Kinetic Theory of Gases:
5. Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, applet (Davidson)
5. Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, with applet (Rappe group at UPenn)
5. Speed distribution for noble gases
5. M-B speed distribution for 2D hard spheres (GT)
Wolfram demo: simulation of simple model of gas pressure
9. Diffusion
Thermodynamics:
13. Carnot cycle [alternative download site] sophisticated
13. Carnot cycle from UVa
13. Wolfram demo: Carnot cycle on ideal gas
13. Nice summary of ideal gas processes for atoms and dimers
13. Otto cycle-car engine, animated
13. Otto cycle with p-V diagram, re Wright brothers
13. Diesel engine
13. Stirling engine in Wikipedia, has nice graphics, p-V diagram, and lots of info
13. Stirling engine, excellent applet linked in Wikipedia article
13. Stirling engine (in German)
13. Refrigeration cycle, qualitative
14. Applet of bouncing ball and entropy
14. Extensive, non-technical discussion of entropy
14. Long discussion of entropy claiming to clarify common misconceptions
14. Discussion of Joule expansion
14. Slides re 1st law and Joule expansion; some nice basic drawings
14. Maxwell's demon
17. Coefficients of linear expansion of the elements
17. Adiabatic demagnetization: note first figure
17. Adiabatic demagnetization refrigeration equipment
19. Equipartition
19/33. Brownian motion, excellent applet
19/33. Brownian motion, atomic and microscope views
19/33. Brownian motion in 1D and 2D
20/21. Applets for 2-level system and for dimer rotation, plus extensive text and quizzes
21. Buckyball: C60
22. Le Chatlier's principle demo
23. Black body radiation spectrum
23. Black body spectrum, inc. total emitted power
23. Stellar spectra
23. Solar sails and wikipedia description
23. Space travel with solar power and Dyson sphere
24. Phonon dispersion and display of transverse modes in 1D (excellent java app but too complicated for Phys 404. Just look at the acoustic mode; ignore the optical mode! Also, just focus on either the red or the blue dots)
24. Phonon density of states via "debye"
26. Wikipedia article on van der Waals equation
26. Comparison of van der Waals and ideal gas isotherms
26. van der Waals applet, with adjustable a and b
26. van der Waals compressibility (=pV/NkT) vs. p for adjustable a, b, T
26. Ideal gas, van der Waals, and alternative
26. van der Waals isotherms (in French)
26. van der Waals and Maxwell construction (Wolfram demo hyping Mathematica 6) notebook
28. Latent heat, elementary but good graph
28. Better site on latent heat, but less polished graph
28. Generic phase diagrams, nice summary
29. Dependence of Fermi-Dirac distribution on chemical potential
29. Bose-Einstein, Fermi-Dirac, and Maxwell-Boltzmann Statistics (Wolfram demo) Mathematica 6 notebook
29/30. Wikipedia: Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics
30. Applet schematic about when Bose-Einstein condensation occurs
30. Bose-Einstein condensation, popularized exposition with nice java
Applets for 2-level system and rotating dimer (scroll down past formalism!)
Equilibration of Einstein solids
Flanders & Swan ditty on Laws of Thermodynamics
Free Energies, Phase Transformations, Chemical Thermodynamics:
Liquid 4He phase diagram and info
Chemistry animations & simulations
Chemical equilibrium, with virtual experiments
Chemical equilibrium, nice example from above
Phase changes, from chemistry suite at Davidson
Phase separation--dramatic movie
Boltzmann Statistics, Classical Systems
Vesely site on Boltzmann & statistical physics in introductory courses
Illustrative applet for system with 4 discrete levels
Statistical mechanics simulator
Chap. 7--Quantum Statistics
Path-integral simulation of Bose condensation (Shumway at ASU)
Ising model & Monte Carlo simulation
Ising applet, by Peter Young: control T, monitor configurations, magnetization and energy (seems no longer available)
Ising applet with adjustable dimensions and boundary conditions, as well as usual controls
3D
Ising model, lots of nice controls
Compendium of Monte Carlo applets
Random applet, with nice sketch of theory and ability to tune and test
Mersenne twister--state-of-the-art random-number generator
Conductivity & transport:
Random walk applet, along with elementary discussion of diffusion
Phase transitions:
Broken symmetry and order parameters (by J. Sethna)
Melting of metal--crude animation
Last updated Jan 24, 2008
