Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

(Returning physicists: See below for March 18 suggested homework. Newcomers: Please read this entire description.)

Join us to study a range of very important topics in modern physics. We are currently focusing on thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Later in the year we will move on to waves, optics, fluid dynamics, elasticity, and plasma. There have been tremendous advances in all of these fields recently and there are remarkable applications of and connections from them to many areas of physics and engineering.

Unlike the classes on stat mech and optics that you may have taken in undergrad, which might have been based on physics texts from 50 years ago, we are rocketing into the present and future by following the recently released book from Kip Thorne and Roger Blandford: Modern Classical Physics. This is a new, geometric and relativistic treatment that incorporates major advances that have taken place in the last few decades of all of the above topics, written by two well-known experts and masterfully laid out in a cohesive, contemporary format that’s easy to read. This is today’s material for today’s students.

Prerequisites: So long as you have taken at least some amount of college calculus and physics at some point in your life, you should be fine. The first part will introduce topics in differential geometry that will be heavily used throughout the book. If you want further study on this topic, come to our regular Relativity and Differential Geometry meetup every other Tuesday.

What to expect – Here is our current format:

• Before each meeting, we will assign ourselves a reading and a set of exercises that everyone is invited to try for next time. (All of this is optional and there is never anything expected or required – this is a self-study group!)
• During the meeting, one or more volunteers will teach the lessons from the assigned readings, and others will present their solutions to (or attempts at!) the exercises.
• Between meetings, we will collaborate through our chat server and/or small study sessions during "office hours". New members should especially take advantage of these to get up to speed. Ask us for details and links to these fantastic resources!

This event joins our other existing collaborative study tracks. Please note that this particular meetup series is a highly mathematical meetup for everyone who is serious about learning the advanced branches of math and physics that one needs to master in order to deeply understand the state of science in 2023. It is not a general discussion group for popular physics topics or sci-fi tangents. For casual physics chat, please attend our regular Monthly Physics Discussion event, held every third Wednesday of the month.
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Suggested homework to do for March 18th:

• If you're new here, ignore the rest of this! Just please make sure you have the book and start reading Chapter 3. (Skip chapters 1 and 2 for now.)
• If you've been here for a while:
• Read up through section 4.10.
• Solve (a subset of) problems 4.3-4.6.

SUGGESTED PROBLEMS. This is a running list of problems we've discussed in session and you're encouraged to discuss them with us after trying them yourself.
Chapter 1: 1 – 5, 7, 11, 13 – 15
Chapter 2: 1 – 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 20
Chapter 3: 4 – 6, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19
Chapter 4: 2 – 6, 8 – 10