Thermal physics

Week 1 :Kinetic theory of gasses: Maxwell-Boltzmann speed distribution law, average speed, RMS speed, most probable speed, pressure expression from kinetic theory

Week 2 : Mean free path, collision probability, Fundamentals of transport phenomena

Week 3 : Viscosity, diffusion, effusion, thermal conductivity in gasses.

Week 4 : Brownian motion and its significance, Einstein’s theory of molecular diffusion, Perrin’s experiment, random walk (concept only)

Week 5 : Principle of equipartition of energy, degrees of freedom, Specific heat of monoatomic, diatomic and polyatomic gasses, Specific heat of solids, Dulong-petit law, Einstein and Debye theory of specific heat of solids

Week 6 : Real gasses, deviation from ideal gas equation, The Van-der Walls equation of state, the virial coefficients, other equation of state (elementary discussion)
Week 7 : Zeroth and 1 st law of thermodynamics, quasi static processes, work and internal energy, isothermal and adiabatic processes, elastic coefficients of matter

Week 8 : 2 nd law of thermodynamics, Entropy, Clausius’ theorem, Carnot’s theorem and Carnot’s cycle, Otto and diesel cycles

Week 9 :Enthalpy, Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies, Maxwell’s thermodynamics relations, the TdS equations, thermodynamic equilibrium and free energies.

Week 10 : Equilibrium between phases, 1 st and 2nd latent heat equations, 1 st and 2nd order phase transitions. Phase diagram and Triple point,

Week 11 : Thermodynamics at triple point, Ehrenfest equations, Thermodynamic potentials across phase transition, Gibbs phase rule and simple applications

Week 12 : Blackbody as a thermodynamic system, 3 rd law of thermodynamics, entropy at absolute zero temperature