Physics 303: Thermal Physics

Instructor: Dr. L. Larrabee Strow

Office: CP 528

Phone: 455-2528

Email: strow@umbc.edu

This is the World Wide Web Home Page for Physics 303, Thermal Physics, at UMBC. Hyperlinks to topics of interest for this class will be placed on this page. For example, you can access the Physics 303 Class Syllabus from here. This is a living document, and will change from week to week. I suggest that you take a look at this page at least once a week. I don't plan to use extensive graphics so you can read most of these on-line class notes from a terminal using the lynx viewer on the UNIX machines at UMBC.

Umbc's WWW Server has extensive information about the World Wide Web as well as UMBC-specific documents.

Check New Postings for up-to-date information about Physics 303. You may also want to go directly to the Homework Home Page, the Classnotes Home Page or to the Errata for the text.

How Can This Physics 303 On-Line Document Help You?

First of all, the use of the World Wide Web (WWW, or just Web) for Physics 303 is an experiment. This is the first time I have used the Web for a class, so I don't know for sure how helpful it will be. This document may contain the following materials:

Homework assignments and due dates
Hints for homework problems
Answers to commonly asked questions
Reminders for upcoming exam dates
Additional class materials such as help for computer problems

I expect that most new information will be placed in the homework documents that can be accessed from the Homework Home Page. Some of your homework assignments will require the use of a computer. I suggest that you use Matlab for the computer problems in this course. Matlab is supported on all the UNIX machines at UMBC, is very easy to use, and has on-line documentation. If you take Physics 340, Electronics for Scientists, you will also need to use a package such as Matlab.

You can view (on an X11 terminal) or print out a Matlab Primer that reviews the more important commands. You can also purchase a copy of this primer from CRC Press. For general help on UNIX at UMBC, you might want to attend one of ACS's short courses on UNIX during the middle of September.

To help you get used to Matlab, I have provided the text of a Matlab session used to solve homework problem 1.4.

I will be available for consultation during published office hours, except in unusual circumstances. You may also send me questions via Email, which I generally read several times a day, and often at night at home. I don't guarantee when I will respond to your question. However, you are likely to get a response more quickly via Email than if you waited for office hours. ACS recommends that you use the package pine for email on UNIX machines.

As the course progresses I will post Errata for the text, which start in Chapter 2.

New Postings

Look here for pointers to new/changed documents.

Sept. 11, 1994

Draft class notes for Chapters 1 and 2 are available for you to print. See the Class Notes Homepage to retrieve and print these notes.
You can also look at the Matlab code for my extension of Example 3.4 that was discussed in class.

Sept. 12, 1994

I have updated the classroom notes for Chapters 1 and 2. Please print a new copy if you got the old one before Sep 12 14:11.
I checked out Mosaic using the ACS Mac's and PC's. Everything works fine except for downloading the class note postscript files. Because of the way ACS has configured Mac's and PC's, it is going to be very difficult to print the class notes. I've posted some simple directions on getting a UNIX account and printing out the class notes.

Sept. 13, 1994

I have placed a copy of the Matlab primer on ftp.umbc.edu in /pub/users/strow/Physics_303/primer41.ps since this file cannot be directly accessed by PC and Mac Mosaic users. I have also posted on-line instructions on using ftp and printing out the class notes.

Sept. 19, 1994

Be careful when Matlab returns a number like 0.0000. Since Matlab defaults to fixed point format, this number is most likely a non-zero floating point number. If it is the coefficient of a high-order term in a least-squares fit (as in Problem 1.5), then errors could result if you plug in 0.0000 into a calculation of this polynomial. If the 0.0000 is not typed, but stored in some variable from some operation, you can use this variable in calculations safely. To see numbers in floating point format in Matlab type format short e. The following piece of a Matlab session outlines this problem.
```
ans =

    0.0000    0.0180    7.2600

>> format short e
>> ans
ans =

   7.6330e-06   1.8037e-02   7.2600e+00
```

Sept. 20, 1994

I fixed some typos in the class notes, so there is a new notes3.ps file on ftp.umbc.edu.
The above typos are in the book as well, and are now duly noted in the Errata.

Sept. 21, 1994

The class notes for Chapter 3 are finished.
The homework assignment for Chapter 3 has been posted as well as some hints!

Oct. 5, 1994

The class notes for Chapter 4 are finished.
I may post some preliminary notes for Chapter 5 today a little later.

Oct. 6, 1994

I posted a preliminary version of the Chapter 5 notes.
People are starting to miss class. If this continues I may stop posting the class notes!
The text Thermodynamics, by Fermi is a good supplement to Chapters 4-6 in our text. It is a Dover book and is probably very inexpensive.

Oct. 10, 1994

The final version of the Chapter 5 notes have been posted.
I went ahead and posted some hints for the Chapter 5 homework.

Oct. 18, 1994

The Chapter 6 homework problems have been posted.

Oct. 21, 1994

The Chapter 7 homework problems have been posted.

Nov. 15, 1994

A number of updates to the homework pages have been added.