(June 3, 2013) 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.

10. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 10 (June 3, 2013)

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. (May 27, 2013)

9. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 9 (May 27, 2013)

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. (May 20, 2013)

8. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 8 (May 20, 2013)

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. (May 13, 2013)

7. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 7 (May 13, 2013)

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. (May 6, 2013)

6. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 6 (May 6, 2013)

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. (April 29, 2013)

5. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 5 (April 29, 2013)

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. (April 22, 2013)

4. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 4 (April 22, 2013)

Leonard Susskind begins the derivation of the distribution of energy states that represents maximum entropy in a system at equilibrium. (April 15, 2013)

3. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 3 (April 15, 2013)

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. (April 8, 2013)

2. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 2 (April 8, 2013)

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. (April 1, 2013)

1. Statistical Mechanics Lecture 1 (April 1, 2013)

Modern Physics: Statistical Mechanics (Spring 2013)

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