Concepts in thermal physics / Stephen J. Blundell and Katherine M. Blundell.

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 485-487) and index.

This text provides a modern introduction to the main principles of thermal physics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The key concepts are presented and new ideas are illustrated with worked examples as well as description of the historical background to their discovery.

1. Introduction -- 2. Heat -- 3. Probability -- 4. Temperature and the Boltzmann factor -- 5. Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution -- 6. Pressure -- 7. Molecular effusion -- 8. The mean free path and collisions -- 9. Transport properties in gases -- 10. The thermal diffusion equation -- 11. Energy -- 12. Isothermal and adiabatic processes -- 13. Heat engines and the second law -- 14. Entropy -- 15. Information theory -- 16. Thermodynamic potentials -- 17. Rods, bubbles, and magnets -- 18. The third law -- 19. Equipartition of energy -- 20. The partition function -- 21. Statistical mechanics of an ideal gas -- 22. The chemical potential -- 23. Photons -- 24. Phonons -- 25. Relativistic gases -- 26. Real gases -- 27. Cooling real gases -- 28. Phase transitions -- 29. Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions -- 30. Quantum gases and condensates -- 31. Sound waves -- 32. Shock waves -- 33. Brownian motion and fluctuations -- 34. Non-equilibrium thermodynamics -- 35. Stars -- 36. Compact objects -- 37. Earth's atmosphere -- A. Fundamental constants -- B. Useful formulae -- C. Useful mathematics -- D. the electromagnetic spectrum -- E. Some thermodynamical definitions -- F. Thermodynamic expansion formulae -- G. Reduced mass -- H. Glossary of main symbols.

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