statistical mechanics

Notes prepared for Statistical Mechanics and Advanced Elasticity.

Attached are the slides and notes for a course on engineering thermodynamics.  

So far we have been mainly concerned with systems of a single independent variable: energy (node/4878). We now consider a system of two independent variables: energy and volume. A thermodynamic model of the system is prescribed by entropy as a function of energy and volume.

The partial derivatives of the function give the temperature and the pressure. This fact leads to an experimental procedure to determine the function for a given system.

The laws of ideal gases and osmosis are derived. The two phenomena illustrate entropic elasticity.

• A small system in thermal contact with a large system
• The Boltzmann factor
• Partition function
• The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a specific state
• The probability for a system in thermal equilibrium with a reservoir to be in a configuration
• Thermal fluctuation of an RNA molecule
• A matter of words
  

Return to the outline of Statistical Mechanics.

• A dissection of a sample space
• Entropy of a dissection of a sample space

The notes are attached.  See related notes on thermodynamics.

• An experiment that has many possible outcomes
• Construct a sample space at a suitable level of detail
• Probability of an event
• Conditioning
• Independent events
• Random variable
• Use a random variable to specify an event
• Use a random variable to dissect a sample space
• Probability distribution of a random variable
• Variance of a random variable
• A dimensionless measure of the fluctuation of a random variable

Return to the outline of Statistical Mechanics