PHYSICS 112
Thermal Physics
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: course 115A. Corequisite: course 115B. Fundamentals of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Classical and quantum ensembles. Simple applications including heat engines and pumps. Degenerate Fermi gases, Bose condensates, and blackbody radiation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
1 of 2
AD
AD
Most Helpful Review
Just saw that Putterman is teaching Thermo again. To those out there considering taking him, DON'T DO IT. He's a nice guy (if you're a physics major, he's quite happy we exist it seems) and I did find him very entertaining. I even did well in the class. What I did not do was learn anything. From polling my classmates, I'm not sure anyone did. You might be able to get by in 115A or 110A, where you have one of Griffith's awesome texts to guide you, but this is not the case with thermo. He reuses the same lecture notes every year,so here's what to expect: 3 different text books + photocopies from others His lectures do not correspond to any of the material in any of these books Hw is assigned from graduate level text and will occassionally stump the T.A. Statistical mechanics will be ignored completely. Your grade will be entirely dependent on what you choose to put on your index card, as he dives in far too deep too fast for anyone to understand anything. Do yourself a favor, wait for whoever teaches it next.
Just saw that Putterman is teaching Thermo again. To those out there considering taking him, DON'T DO IT. He's a nice guy (if you're a physics major, he's quite happy we exist it seems) and I did find him very entertaining. I even did well in the class. What I did not do was learn anything. From polling my classmates, I'm not sure anyone did. You might be able to get by in 115A or 110A, where you have one of Griffith's awesome texts to guide you, but this is not the case with thermo. He reuses the same lecture notes every year,so here's what to expect: 3 different text books + photocopies from others His lectures do not correspond to any of the material in any of these books Hw is assigned from graduate level text and will occassionally stump the T.A. Statistical mechanics will be ignored completely. Your grade will be entirely dependent on what you choose to put on your index card, as he dives in far too deep too fast for anyone to understand anything. Do yourself a favor, wait for whoever teaches it next.
1 of 2
