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Subject:	Physics
Topic:	Statistical Mechanics
Views:	21,735

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Stanford University

Name:	Stanford University (Stanford)
Type:	University

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Instructor

Name

Leonard Susskind

The Theoretical Minimum VI: Statistical Mechanics

Video Lectures

Displaying all 10 video lectures.

Lecture 1 Play Video	Entropy and Conservation of Information Leonard Susskind introduces statistical mechanics as one of the most universal disciplines in modern physics. He begins with a brief review of probability theory, and then presents the concepts of entropy and conservation of information. Recorded on: April 1, 2013.
Lecture 2 Play Video	Temperature Prof. Leonard Susskind presents the physics of temperature. Temperature is not a fundamental quantity, but is derived as the amount of energy required to add an incremental amount of entropy to a system. Recorded on: April 8, 2013
Lecture 3 Play Video	Maximizing Entropy Prof. Leonard Susskind begins the derivation of the distribution of energy states that represents maximum entropy in a system at equilibrium. Recorded on April 15, 2013.
Lecture 4 Play Video	The Boltzmann Distribution Prof. Leonard Susskind completes the derivation of the Boltzman distribution of states of a system. This distribution describes a system in equilibrium and with maximum entropy. Recorded on April 23, 2013.
Lecture 5 Play Video	Pressure of an Ideal Gas and Fluctuations Prof. Leonard Susskind presents the mathematical definition of pressure using the Helmholtz free energy, and then derives the famous equation of state for an ideal gas: pV = NkT. Recorded on April 29, 2013.
Lecture 6 Play Video	Weakly-interacting Gases, Heat, and Work Prof. Leonard Susskind derives the equations for the energy and pressure of a gas of weakly interacting particles, and develops the concepts of heat and work which lead to the first law of thermodynamics. Recorded on May 6, 2013.
Lecture 7 Play Video	Entropy vs. Reversibility Prof. Leonard Susskind addresses the apparent contradiction between the reversibility of classical mechanics and the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy generally increases. This topic leads to a discussion of the foundation of chaos theory. Recorded on May 13, 2013.
Lecture 8 Play Video	Entropy, reversibility, and magnetism Prof. Leonard Susskind continues the discussion of reversibility by calculating the small but finite probability that all molecules of a gas collect in one half of a room. He then introduces the statistical mechanics of magnetism. Recorded on May 20, 2013.
Lecture 9 Play Video	The Ising model Prof. Leonard Susskind develops the Ising model of ferromagnetism to explain the mathematics of phase transitions. The one-dimensional Ising model does not exhibit phase transitions, but higher dimension models do. Recorded on May 27, 2013.
Lecture 10 Play Video	Liquid-gas phase transition Professor Susskind continues the discussion of phase transitions beginning with a review of the Ising model and then introduces the physics of the liquid-gas phase transition. Recorded on June 3, 2013.