Summary information: Statistical physics is the bridge between the concepts of dynamics, momentum, force, and Newtons Laws, and the concepts of thermodynamics such as pressure, temperature and entropy. In this course we will develop the ideas of thermodynamics from the point of view of statistical mechanics: that is, the phenomenological laws which relate macroscopic variables such as internal energy and temperature arise as the average over many (i.e. on the order of Avogadro's number) microscopic degrees of freedom. The ideas and techniques of statistical mechanics are widely used outside physics, in, inter alia, financial modelling, optimization of logistics in business and the modelling of social systems. 


Pictures: Left: Ludwig Boltzmann, Middle: Brownian motion of fat droplets in milk. The statistical nature of thermodynamic laws is made evident by the observation of small fluctuations in the droplets positions.  Right: J. Willard Gibbs