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Re: textbook on thermal physics



My choice for a junior-senior course would be the larger Reif.
You won't come anywhere near completing the text, but that's OK.
There is lots of good solid conceptual physics in that book.
I've used it four or five times in a similar (but shorter - 39
lectures) course and I'd do it again.

I just finished teaching our sophomore course which precedes
the Reif course. I used Zemansky & Dittman, the sixth ed. I have
looked at the seventh only briefly. In my opinion the book is
overpriced and underprovided with helpful prose. It can't
approach Reif's grasp of concept, but Reif can't be used for a
course that starts with classical thermodynamics.

Just opinions, but I hope they'll help stimulate discussion.

Leigh