Instructor

Professor William Loinaz
Office: 223 Merrill Science Center
Phone: (413) 542-7968
email: waloinaz [AT] amherst [DOT] edu
Office Hours:
M 1:30-2:30 pm, W 1:30-3:00 pm [subject to change as the semester goes on].
For my scheduled office hours, you can either drop in or make an appointment. To meet with me at some other time, it will be easiest if you email me for an appointment.
You're also welcome to drop by my office. If I'm in and free I'm happy to meet with you, but it's not so often during the day that I'm in and I'm free.

Graders: Rohan Mazumdar, Neha Wadia

Course Information

Course Catalog Description:

Schedule

• Class: MWF 11-11:50 am, Merrill 211
• Problem Session (informal): Thursday, 10:30-11:30 pm, Physics student lounge
  

Requisites

Course requirements

• Attendance: Come to class. Lectures and in-class discussion will generally NOT duplicate the text, so don't assume you can just "get it from the book". It's your affair how you allocate your time and I won't explicitly penalize you for being absent, but if you're going to be absent please do me the courtesy of letting me know in advance, if possible. It's a small class--I'll notice if you're missing. And if you're consistently absent I'll want to know why. If you arrive late, please enter quietly at the back of the classroom. Obviously it will be your responsibility to find out what happened in the class you missed.

• Homework: I'll assign weekly problem sets, due (tenatively) Saturdays @ noon. You may leave your homework in my mailbox near the physics department office, or of course you may give it to me personally (please do NOT leave it in the box beside my office or stick it under my door). Homework submitted late without prior arrangement will receive a 50% penalty if submitted within three days of the due date (i.e. by Tuesday @ noon), and will receive no credit after that.

  Why do the homework?
  Since you're sophomores and juniors, you've all figured this out by now. But, I'll say it anyway...

  I can't emphasize enough the importance of working the problems. In some of your classes homework is primarily evaluative; the point is for you to demonstrate what you've learned from the readings and lectures. In physics the homeworks are primarily instructional; you learn physics primarily by doing working problems. You must work the problems, think about the results, and understand any mistakes you've made if you wish to attain the type of understanding of the subject required of a working physicist. In at nutshell: If you can't work problems you don't know physics. I (or a grader) will grade the problems, and I'll hand out solutions. I encourage you to read the solutions and understand any mistakes immediately. If something doesn't make sense, ask me about it right away---don't wait until right before an exam.

  Homework extensions
  If you've got a good reason why you need an extension, come talk to me in advance. I'll usually grant the extension for some additional reasonable amount of time that we agree upon. However, I will not grant a homework extension without penalty if you ask for it on the day the homework is due, so don't ask for one. In general, life will be easier for both of us if you do your best to finish the problem set on time and hand in as much as you've been able to complete by the deadline. [If you need such a last-minute or post-facto extension due to extenuating circumstances (e.g. death in the family, sudden illness, travel problem), consult the Dean of Students or your Class Dean formally make such a request to me and suggest a rescheduled due date. You should also take this route if you need an extension but you don't want to tell me why (say, it's for personal or legal reasons). If you explain your reason to a Dean and the Dean tells me it's OK, that's good enough for me.]

• Exams: There will be two mid-term exams and a final, and these will serve as the primary evaluative mechanisms for the course. The exams will be closed-book, and all course material (lectures, handouts, text readings and homeworks) are fair game for the exam. I'll give you relevant formulae, so the exams will be not be memorization exercises. I tend to like problems that ask that you derive results utilizing key derivations from class, then use the result to do something new.

• Extensions: In the interest of fairness I will hold fast to the deadlines and policies above. In particular, I won't grant extensions to homeworks on the day they're due, and I won't reschedule the exam for an individual to a different day from the rest of the class. Should circumstances render such rescheduling unavoidable, you'll need to have the Dean of Students or your Class Dean contact me with a formal request for an extension and a suggested rescheduled time. Such matters should be taken care of before the exam if at all possible. If the matter is personal or confidential, the Deans need not provide me with any particulars, only their opinion that the rescheduling is reasonable.

  The College requires that all written work for a course except for a final be submitted by 5 pm on the last day of classes. The physics department takes this deadline seriously. After that day/time, no homework will be accepted.

Statement of Intellectual Responsibility: particulars for this course

• I strongly encourage you to discuss the homework problems with your classmates---discussing and debating the concepts and procedures is a very effective way to learn. However, the final write-ups of your assignments should be your own. For example, the copying homework solutions in part or in whole from other students (current or prior) or from other sources (commercial or otherwise) is unacceptable. I don't mind if you use other texts to learn from, and if the answer to a homework problem is worked as a example in some other text you may utilize it (although you should first try to solve it on your own as best you can). But in that case you should make an explicit reference to the source in your homework, and of course you still need to explain the solution to the problem in your own words. It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: tests are written without help.
• If you have any questions about what is or is not acceptable under this policy, please ask us. In all cases, the spirit of the Statement of Intellectual responsibility will take precedence over legalistic convolutions of the text.

How to get the most from this class:

• Come to class awake and on time.

• Do the relevant reading and read through the problems assigned for the week before the lecture (I'll announce the readings and problems in class and post them on the website). Even if you don't understand the readings fully at the time, try to get the broad outline of the material so you'll have some hooks on which to hang the ideas that we talk about in class.

  The roles of lectures and textbooks
  Lecture will not be a regurgitation of the text, a summary of all you need to know for the course, or a how-to guide for the homework. Rather, I'll try delve deeper into selected points. In lecture I'll cover material and do demonstrations related to the readings, but I won't feel obliged to be comprehensive in those places where I feel the text is adequate and I may focus only on a few points that I feel are particularly interesting or subtle. You shouldn't expect to understand what's going on without close study of the readings, and you should come to class with questions you have on the readings. Further, after we settle into the semester a bit, I expect the classes will become less lecture-oriented and more participatory; it will be difficult to reap the maximum benefit from that format if you're not sufficiently prepared to fully participate.

• Ask questions: in class, after class, during office hours, in problem sessions, in the hallways. Ask the questions you think you're supposed to know the answer to, the questions you're sure everyone else knows the answer to (they don't), questions about the overarching logic or the minute details, questions about the points or conclusions that weren't made that seem like they should follow. If individual arguments, their interconnection, or the entire point of the lecture don't seem clear to you, ASK. The main benefit to taking a class, especially at a small school like Amherst, is that you can ask questions of the experts.

• Work the problems: Start early. Try all of them. Struggle with them awhile yourself---some will be clear, simple exercises meant to familiarize you with a procedure, others will be meant to stretch your understanding (some will be intentionally vague, so that you have to clarify the picture before solving the problem). Be sure you can state what ideas (mathematical and physical) are being utilized in each problem; even if you still can't solve the problem you're most of the way there. The ability to work problems is not sufficient to claim an understanding of the physics, but it is a necessary step.

  For the problems you can't solve, talk to classmates, attend the problem sessions, or ask me. When you ask me, either try to give you just enough of a hint to get you through, or I'll guide you through the problem with a series of leading questions. I'll never just tell you how to do it. If you run out of time and don't finish the set, start earlier next week. When the solutions come out, look over them right away, before you've forgotten all of the points you were confused about. You think you'll just get clear on it before the next exam, but there's never as much time as you think.

• If things aren't going as you'd like, take an active role in improving your situation. Use all of the resources at your disposal. Step 1 is almost always to come talk to me. If you don't understand what's going on in lecture, the book, or the problems, if you feel like you can't keep up, come talk to me. I can help you, and I can point you to additional resources. Don't hide.

  On the other hand, if you find the class too slow for your liking, if you have questions that you aren't getting answers to, if you'd like more detail, if you are frustrated that we aren't digging deeply enough, if you crave more applications, come talk to me. I'm very happy to provide you with additional materials or explanations that will will stimulate you and challenge you at whatever level you can handle.

  One word of warning: Amherst College students tend to have lots of extracurriculars of all types. I support this, and I am occasionally willing to be flexible to facilitate your participation in range of activities, but don't let your extracurriculars overshadow your academics. If you become concerned that your courses are getting in the way of your extracurriculars, you've got the wrong mindset. Remember why you're here.

Grading:

• Homework: 20%
• First Midterm (Wed. Mar. 7): 25%
• Second Midterm (Wed. Apr. 11): 25%
• Final: 30%

Textbooks:

• Statistical and Thermal Physics: With Computer Applications
  Author: Harvey Gould and Jan Tobochnik
  ISBN-13: 978-0691137445
  Publisher: Princeton University Press
  [This is a new book, one which has an emphasis on computer simulations as a tool for understanding the subject. Jan Tobochnik is an Amherst alum, and Harvey Gould teaches at nearby Clark University.]
  
  The text of this book, as well as the simulations used within it, are available for free on the web. See the compadre website,
  http://www.compadre.org/STP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=10986
  
  See also Harvey Gould's website:
  http://stp.clarku.edu/notes/
  and http://stp.clarku.edu/simulations/
  

• An Introduction to Thermal Physics
  Author: Daniel V. Schroeder
  ISBN-13: 978-0201380279
  Publisher: Addison Wesley
  [A pretty good, readable introduction to the subject. This has been used as the textbook for this course for the past few years, and I used it as the textbook for this course last year.]
  
  
• Physics (vol. 1-3), Hans Ohanian [a good general text for review of introductory physics material. used as Physics 23/24 text in the past.]
  
  
• Lectures in Physics, R. P. Feynman [Feynman's insights are always unique and worthwhile. You appreciate them more as you get older.]

• Mathematical Handbook (Schaum's Outline Series), Murray R. Spiegel [a convenient compendium of useful mathematical formulae, including integrals and special functions at a low, low price.]

Mathematica Tutorials

We may use Mathematica in the homework, to obtain numerical solutions to problems that are not analytically solvable and to simplify plotting of results. If you've never used Mathematica before, or haven't used it much, the tutorials will help you get started. They were written by Professor Emeritus Bob Hilborn and revised by Rebecca Erwin '02. If you download the file and save it to the desktop with a .nb suffix in the name, your computer will recognize it as a Mathematica notebook and will start up Mathematica automatically when you double-click on the icon, provided you have Mathematica installed. Mathematica is installed on lots of the college's public machines, including on the computers in the Physics Department computer lab. Alternately, you can pay the $140 or so to buy the student version.

• Intro
  
• Functions
  
• SymbolicManipulation
  
• Plots
  
• Lists and Arrays
  
• Solving Differential Equations Numerically
  
• Complex Numbers
  
• Fourier Analysis
  
• Programming
  
• Statistics
  
• Input-Output Issues
  
• Solving Equations Numerically
  

Lecture Schedule

Week	Notes	Hmwk	Other
1. January 23	Thermal Phenomena Jan 23: Course Organization / Overview Course organization. Overview of the subject. Relation between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. Jan 25: title topics Jan 27: title topics	Read: G&T, Chap. 1	The text of this book is available for free on the web. See the compadre website, http://www.compadre.org/STP/filingcabinet/share.cfm?UID=10986
2. January 30	title Jan 30: title Feb 1: title topics Feb 3: title topics	Read: G&T, Chap. 2, sections 2.1-2.5 PS 1: G&T: 1.1 (you may omit parts (d) and (e)), 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.8, 1.10, 1.25 [due Friday February 3, 2012, 10:00 pm]
3. February 6	week title Feb 6: title topics Feb 8: title topics Feb 10: title topics	Read: G&T, Chap. 2, sections 2.6-2.18 PS 2: G&T, Problems 2.13, 2.17, 2.47, 2.51, 2.53, 2.56, 2.57 [due Friday February 10, 2012, 10:00 pm]
4. February 13	week title Feb 13: title topics Feb 15: title topics Feb 17: title topics	Read: G&T, Chap. 2, up through sec. 2.20, and also sec. 2.24 PS 3: G&T, Problems 2.19, 2.20, 2.21, 2.23, 2.24, 2.54, 2.55, 2.63 [due Friday February 17, 2012, 10:00 pm]
5. February 20	week title Feb 20: title topics Feb 22: title topics Feb 24: title topics	Read: G&T, Chap. 2, up through sec. 2.20, and also sec. 2.24 PS 4: G&T, Problems 2.25, 2.26, 2.27, 2.66, 2.68 [due Friday February 24, 2012, 10:00 pm]
6. February 27	week title Feb 27: title topics Feb 29: title topics Mar 2: title topics	Read: Start Chap. 3: 3.1-3.3 Last week's problem set extended. Now due Saturday March 3, 2012, noon.
7. March 5	week title Mar 5: title topics Mar 7: title topics Mar 9: title topics Mar 7: Exam 1 7-10 pm Merrill 211	Read: G&T, 3.1-3.3, 3.4.1, 3.5-3.7, 3.11 (i.e. all of the sections that are not starred) PS 5: G&T: 3.15, 3.17, 3.18, 3.29, 3.30, 3.31, 3.34, 3.59, 3.60 [due Saturday March 10, 2012, noon]
8. March 12	title Mar 12: title topics: Mar 14: title topics: Mar 16: title topics: title	Read: Finish reading the unstarred sections of G&T, Chap. 3, and read Chap. 4, sections 4.1-4.3. PS 6: G&T: 3.36, 3.38, 3.39, 3.43, 3.45, 3.64 [due Saturday March 17, 2012, noon]
March 19	spring break Mar 19: break topics Mar 21: break topics Mar 23: break topics	Read: Read Chap. 4 of G&T through the end of sec. 4.5 PS 7: G&T: 4.2, 4.7, 4.11, 4.14, 4.16, 4.20 [due Saturday March 31, 2012, noon]
9. March 26	week title Mar 26: title topics Mar 28: title topics Mar 30: title topics	Read: Finish reading Chap. 4 of G&T PS 8: G&T: 4.24, 4.28, 4.29, 4.33, 4.41, 4.47, 4.50, 4.53 [due Saturday April 7, 2012, noon]
10. April 2	week title Apr 2: title topics Apr 4: title topics Apr 6: title topics	Read: Chap. 5, sec. 5.1-5.5 of G&T PS 9: G&T: 4.45, 4.54, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6, 5.32, 5.33 [due Saturday April 12, 2012, noon]
11. April 9	week title Apr 9: title topics Apr 11: title topics Apr 13: title topics	Read: same as last week PS 10: G&T: 5.9, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.13, 6.16, 6.17, 6.55, 6.56 [due Saturday April 28, 2012, noon]
12. April 16	week title Apr 16: title topics Apr 18: Exam 2 7-10 pm Merrill 211 Apr 18: title topics Apr 20: title topics	Read: PS 11
13. April 23	week title Apr 23: title topics Apr 25: title topics Apr 27: title topics	Read: PS 12
14. April 30	week title Apr 30: title topics May 2: title topics May 4: title topics	Read: chap 6 some suggested problems from chap. 6: 6.28, 6.33, 6.40, 6.59, 6.60, 6.61 [not graded]