An Introduction To Thermal Physics by Schroeder, Daniel V.

An Introduction To Thermal Physics by Schroeder, Daniel V.

ISBN 0201380277

Publisher:Addison Wesley Longman.

Preface

Thermal physics deals with collections of large numbers of particles—typically

1023 or so. Examples include the air in a balloon, the water in a lake, the electrons

in a chunk of metal, and the photons (electromagnetic wave packets) given off by

the sun. Anything big enough to see with our eyes (or even with a conventional

microscope) has enough particles in it to qualify as a subject of thermal physics.

Consider a chunk of metal, containing perhaps 1023 ions and 1023 conduction

electrons. We can’t possibly follow every detail of the motions of all these particles,

nor would we want to if we could. So instead, in thermal physics, we assume

that the particles just jostle about randomly, and we use the laws of probability

to predict how the chunk of metal as a whole ought to behave. Alternatively, we

can measure the bulk properties of the metal (stiffness, conductivity, heat capacity,

magnetization, and so on), and from these infer something about the particles it is

made of.