PHYS 427 :: Physics Illinois :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Course Description

Prerequisite

PHYS 213/214 and PHYS 325 or consent of the instructor.

Textbook

Thermal Physics, Kittel and Kroemer is the recommended text. I have also recommended Thermal Physics, by D. Schroeder. You can choose which of these two texts you prefer.

Notes

Please check the course website each day for announcements, assignments, solutions and class notes.   Posted lecture notes are provided courtesy of Yann Chemla and are copyright Chemla 2017, and are not for distribution.   While the website will be important for the distribution of course material,  PHYS 427 is not an online course. You are responsible for all material introduced in lecture, and your grade will depend in part on participation in discussions.  

Homework

Homework will be assigned on Wednesdays and will be due the Thursday of the following week.  Solutions will be posted one week after that, and assignments will be returned in the discussion after the solutions are up.   Please deposit assignments in the PHYS427 mailbox in the Loomis-MRL interpass before 5 pm on Thursday.  Late assignments will be marked down 20% for each day beyond the due date, i.e., if your raw score is x, your score one day late would be 0.8 x.    The homework sets must be clearly written, and submissions with more than one page should be stapled together.  

Exams

There will be two in-class midterms and a final.

Grading

Course Component Percentage of Grade
Discussion 15
Homework 30
Exam 1 15
Exam 2 15
Final Exam 25

General Information

 There are several excellent texts available that offer different perspectives.  The books on reserve in the library are listed below.