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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
The Endterm Exam has been graded, and you may see your grade on Blackboard. The average was 69.7 with a standard deviation of 18.1. The exam and its solutions, and a histogram of the class grades, are now posted on Blackboard - go to the Endterm Exam link in the left side blue navigation panel. If you wish to pick up your exam, you may stop by my office on Monday or Tuesday this week. On Wednesday morning I will put any remaining exams in your Physics Department mailbox (for Physics students), or I will send it to you by intramural mail (for non-Physics students). Final course grades have been submitted to the registrar. The average for the class was set at the break point between B+ and A-. I hope you enjoyed the course! Stay safe and have a great summer!
Please fill out the course specific survey which is due today at 5pm. This survey counts 3 points towards the participation component of your course grade. You may access the survey from the Survey link in the blue navigation panel on the course's Blackboard page. Your responses are recorded anonymously. Please also fill out the standard College course evaluation form that can be found by going to https://rochester.aefis.net and loging in with your NetID. Your feedback is very important!! This survey must be completed by this Friday, April 29. Problem Set 12 is due tomorrow (Wednesday) by 5pm. Please contact me if you need an extension. The Endterm Exam will be next week Wednesday, May 4, from 12:30-3:30pm in BL 269. Note, you will have the full three hours to work on the exam. The Endterm Exam covers the material since the Midterm Exam, and is intended to be comparable in length and difficulty to the Midterm. The exam will only cover those parts of Unit 4 that are covered in Problem Set 12
The solution to Discussion Question 11 is posted on Blackboard. Notes for the problem on Bose-Einstein condensation, that we discussed in class this morning, are now posted -- use the link for today's date on the Calendar page. Next week is the last week of class!! There is no discussion question next week, but instead you must fill out a survey related to various aspects of the course. This survey must be completed by Tuesday, April 26, 5pm, and will count 3 points towards the participation part of your class grade. Your responses are recorded anonymously. Problem Set 11 is due tomorrow, April 21, at 5pm. Problem Set 12 will be due next week WEDNESDAY, April 27, at 5pm. The Endterm Exam will be Wednesday, May 4, at 12:30pm in BL 269. I am still deciding how much time you will have on the exam. This exam counts the same points towards your class grade as did the Midterm Exam. It will cover material since the Midterm Exam, so the grand canonical ensemble, quantum ensembles, the ideal Fermi and Bose gases, and the beginning of Unit 4. Since we will not have time to go over much of Unit 4, you are only responsible on the exam for topics considered in Problem Set 12. You are allowed a cheat sheet just like you had for the Midterm. Unit 4 is some pretty interesting stuff related to phase transitions. Unfortunately we do not have time to cover much of it, but I hope nevertheless that you will read the notes. Always feel free to contact me if you have questions, even after the course has ended.
In response to several questions I've received, I have added a new supplemental note concerning the Chemical Potential, and discussing it in the classical vs the quantum mechanical limits, what it is for relativistic vs non-relativistic particles, and what it is for bosons vs the excitation level of a harmonic oscillator. You may find this supplemental note on the Notes page at the end of the notes for Unit 3, or at the bottom of the Unit 3 page. In place of a Discussion Question 12 the last week of classes, there is now a survey to take to give me feedback on several aspects of the course. This survey will count 3 points towards the Particpation portion of you class grade. Your responce to the survey is recorded anonymously, however it is recorded whether or not you have taken it. The survey is due Tuesday, April 26, by 5pm. You may find it from the link on the calendar page, or by going to the "Survey" link in the navigation panel of the course's Blackboard page. The usual course survey from the College will open on Monday, April 18, and close on Friday, April 29. I would greatly appreciate your filling out that survey as well. The Discussion Question 11 next week is a particularly fun one that should test how well you understand the differences between classical and quantum ideal gases.
Problem Set 8 is due tomorrow, Thursday, at 5pm. Solutions to Discussion Question 7 and Problem Set 7 are posted on the Blackboard problem sets page. Professor Teitel will be traveling tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, and will not be able to reply to any email until the evening. He will be out of town until Monday afternoon, and so office hour on Monday April 4 is canceled. You may still contact him by email or on Slack.
The Midterm Exam has been graded. You can see your grade, and a histogram of the class grades, on Blackboard. The average on the exam was 69.7 with a standard deviation of 19.2. You can pick you exam up from me by coming by my office hour, or stopping by my office.
Your graded Problem Set 6 is now available on Blackboard, as are the Solutions. The problems on this set were perhaps more involved than on some of our other sets, so please do read the solutions carefully and be sure to understand everything -- don't hesistate to contact me if you have questions. The concepts dealt with in this problem set are key concepts in the course. The Midterm Exam will be this Wednesday, March 16, from 10:25am to 12:30pm in BL 208. Please note, that is NOT our usual room. The exam covers material through the end of Notes 2-15. You may bring your one-page cheat sheet, as described on the Course Information page.
The Solution to Discussion Question 5 is now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. Notes on the more involved discussion we had in class today, to discuss the difference between the density matrix for distinguishable vs indistinguishable particles, can be found from the Calendar page, using the link to the Discussion Session for February 23. Please take a few moments to complete the TA evaluation survey. You can access the survey at http://rochester.aefis.net, or find the link to it from Blackboard.
Based on the replies I received (which were due last Friday at noon), the Midterm Exam will be Wednesday, March 16, from 10:25 am to 12:30 pm. Note, the exam will be in BL 208, so not in our usual room. The exam will be an in-class, closed book exam, as originally planned. The exam will cover all material through the end of Notes 2-15. You may bring a one page cheat sheet as dicussed on the Course Information page.
The Solutions to Problem Set 4 are now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. Notes from this week's discussion session, on the simple model for an interface in a two dimensional system, are now posted. You can find them from the Calendar page, using the link to the Discussion Session for February 16. Remember, you MUST let me know by noon tomorrow (Friday) whether you are able to take the Midterm Exam from 10:25 - 12:40 on Wed March 16. This is an hour extending beyond the end our our usual discussion period. If you have a conflict with that time, you must email me to say what is the conflict, and then let me know if you could take the exam from 9:25-11:40. Discussion Question 5 is due next week Tuesday by 5pm. It is an interesting problem! Problem Set 5 is due next week Thursday by 5pm.
There will be no Discussion Question due next week! I have revised the solution to Discussion Question 3. I have also revised the notes on the entropy of the relativistic gas, to explicitly show how to get the result given in Pathria and Beale for the integrated density of states G(E). These notes can be found from the Calendar page, using the link to the Discussion Session for February 9.
The Solutions to Discussion Question 3 are now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. The goal of DQ 3 was to show that for an extremely relativistic ideal gas, the relation between energy and temperature is E = 3NkBT. Using that and the ideal gas law, pV = NkBT, we considered in the discussion session how to compute the entropy of such a relativistic gas. We computed S using classical thermodynamic arguments, and then we also tried to compute S using the microcanonical ensemble. Notes on that calculation can be found from the Calendar page, using the link to the Discussion Session for February 9.
Solutions to Problem Set 2 are now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. Discussion Question 3 is due Tuesday at 5pm, and Problem Set 3 is due Thursday at 5pm. In our Discussion Session last week one student asked if "adiabatic" is the same as "reversible." This question brings up a number of points that I have until now swept under the rug. So I have now added new Notes 1-10-S2 to discuss this question, and clarify what we mean by adiabatic vs isentropic, and reversible vs irreversible processes. The notes include some examples to illustrate these points. You may find these notes on the Notes page or on the Unit 1 page.
The solutions to Problem Set 1 and to Discussion Question 2 are now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. I urge you all to look at the solutions, even if you did well on the problems. Problem Set 2 is due tomorrow, Thursday, at 5pm. You should all be starting to read the notes for Unit 2.
The solution to Discussion Question 1 is now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's Blackboard site. The recording of today's Discussion Session is now available on the Calendar page of the course website -- look for the link in the calendar box for January 26. Problem Set 1 is due tomorrow, Thursday, at 5pm. Next week the University resumes in-person instruction. We say goodbye to Zoom! My office hour on Monday will be in BL 269 at 10:25am, and our Discussion Session will be on Wednesday in BL 269 at 10:25am.
The Solution to Discussion Question 0 is now posted on the Problem Sets page of the course's site on Blackboard. It is also posted as Notes 0 on the Notes page. The video recording of today's Discussion Session is now available on the Calendar page of the course website. Go to today's date in the calendar and click on the link. This recording is also posted as Video 0 on the Videos page. The topic of Discussion Question 0 led us to a review of some important concenpts in probability, and helped our understanding of the importance of the thermodynamic limit where the number of degrees of freedom N grows infinitely large. Remember, for Thursday 5pm you must post a headshot of yourself to Blackboard, Zoom and Slack. This counts 3 points to the Participation part of your class grade. You must also complete the Academic Honesty exercise. Next week my office hour will be as usual on Monday 10:25 - 11:40am. If you want to chat in private, use the sign up sheet available from the link on the Instructors page. If you click on the link and it tells you that you don't have permission to edit the page, please let me know and I'll give you permission. If you don't need private time, you are welcome to zoom in after 10:55am, no reservation needed! Remember, for January, office hour will be conducted via Zoom only.
Discussion Question 0, due Tuesday, January 18, at 5pm, is now posted on the Problem Sets page. There are no homework problems due Thursday next week, but you must post head shots of yourself on Blackboard, Zoom, and Slack by Thursday, January 20, at 5pm. This will count 3 points towards the Participation part of your course grade! Remember, there will be no office hours next week Monday, January 17, as it is Martin Luther King day. However, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me by email or Slack.
Special COVID Notice: As per University instructions, all classes will be online for the month of January. The weekly discussion sessions on Wednesdays at 10:25am will therefore be held on Zoom. Similarly, Prof. Teitel's office hour on Mondays at 10:25am will be held on Zoom. For office hour, you should sign up if you want private time between 10:25-10:55am. Time from 10:55-11:40am is open drop in time when anyone can come without prior reservation. The link for the office hour sign up sheet can be found on the Instructors page of this website. The Zoom links can be found on the Zoom page of the course's Blackboard site. Note, there are different links for the discussion session and the office hour. Welcome to PHY 418, Statistical Mechanics I. This Home Page is the place to find announcements related to the course. This website has all the information you need to take and do well in the course. If it is on this website, you are responsible for knowing it! Please start the course by going to the Course Overview and Introduction where you can read about the structure of this website. On the Overview page you will find the Welcome Video video which will tell you about the organization of the course and this course website. The Communications page has information about all the methods we will use to keep in touch with each other for this online class. Note, to access several features of this website, such as viewing lecture videos, emailing classmates, posting to discussion boards, uploading homework, and viewing your grades, you must first login the the University's Blackboard system using your UR NetID. Once logged into Blackboard, you can go to the course's Blackboard Home Page. If you click on any Blackboard link before you have logged into Blackboard, you will be taken to a page that says "Access Denied". From there, just click on the house icon at the top right of the page to go to the Blackboard login page (do not click on the "Login" link!).
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