Re: [Phys-l] Picking Thermo Book - Help requested

["Krishna Chowdary" <professor.head@gmail.com>]

On 11/26/06, John Howell <jhowell@earlham.edu> wrote:
> My college is adding a course on Thermo and Statistical Mechanics to
> its curriculum, and I drew the short straw.  Can anyone share success
> (or problems) you've had with texts for such a course?  I last
> studied thermo 40 years ago, so the text with which I was familiar is
> clearly outdated.

Books I've had experience with

Reif, Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics.  Used this for my
undergrad course.  It's fine, and I still refer to it often.

Kittel & Kroemer, Thermal Physics.  Used this as a supplement every time
I've taken or taught this material.  It's also fine.

Schroeder, An Introduction to Thermal Physics.  I used this for the upper
division course I taught, and it is by far my favorite.  Good logical order,
nice treatment, clever arguments, good problems.  I used many of the
problems for in-class examples.  I particularly liked that he kept
revisiting the ideal gas, the Einstein solid, and the two-state paramagnet
as his key examples.  Student complaints about the text were quite limited.

Good luck with your new course!  I really enjoyed teaching from Schroeder's
book; four member of my department have taught this course out of this book
in the recent past, and all of us have had good experiences with it.  I also
just enjoy teaching this material to students at this level.


--
regards
-Krishna