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

Course Description

Prerequisite

PHYS 213/214 (Introduction to Statistical Mechanics and Quantum Physics) and PHYS 325 (Classical Mechanics I) or consent of the instructor.

Textbook

Thermal Physics, C. Kittel and H. Kroemer and highly recommended for learning more physical intuition behind the formalism is also  Elements of Thermal Physics, 5th or later edition  by James Wolfe

Notes

Please check the course website each day for announcements, assignments, solutions and class notes.   The website will be important for the distribution of course material. Discussions will contain important material for the course, please make every effort to attend and participate in the discussions (credit is given for attendance of discussion sections).  And please do not hesitate to ask any questions you may have on the material in discussions, lectures, and office hours.

Homework

Homework will be assigned on Mondays and will usually be due the following Monday at 10 am.  Assignments will be returned with the solutions in discussion in the following week on Tuesday.   Please deposit your homework sheets before 11 am on Mondays (the due date) in the 427 Homework box on the 2nd floor of Loomis in the Interpass (ask the undergrad office in Loomis 233 if you cannot find where the boxes are).  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.  If you do hand in the homework after the deadline, please write at the top of the homework on which day and at what time you put it into the homework box.  The homework sets must be clearly written.  Every homework set has a maximum score of 100 points in total. 

Exams

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

Grading

Course Component Percentage of Grade
Homework 30
Discussion Attendance 15
Midterm Exam 1 15
Midterm 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.