Statistical and Thermal Physics

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Welcome to Statistical and Thermal Physics, a collection of information and resources for teachers of Statistical and Thermal Physics. The resources in this collection are supplements to standard Statistical and Thermal Physics textbooks and include student activities, background information, and applications. New users may create an account to personalize their use of the Statistical and Thermal Physics web site. This will allow them to suggest resources, add comments, and organize resources.

STP Featured Image

STP Hysteresis Program
The STP Hysteresis program is a Monte Carlo simulation of a two-dimensional Ising model demonstrating that the magnetization does not immediately change when the external magnetic field is changed.

STP Materials

STP Textbook: Table of Contents
The foundational resources of the STP Collection are open source simulations with curricular material linked to this textbook: Thermal and Statistical Physics by Harvey Gould and Jan Tobochnik. The text will be published by Princeton University Press, but will remain freely available in the STP Collection.

STP Ising 1D Program
The STP 1D Ising program is a Monte Carlo simulation of a one-dimensional Ising model in equilibrium with a heat bath at temperature T using the Metropolis algorithm.

Teaching Statistical Physics by Thinking about Models and Algorithms
This article discusses several ways of illustrating fundamental concepts in statistical and thermal physics by considering various models and algorithms. It emphasizes the importance of replacing students' incomplete mental images by models that are physically accurate.

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Featured Simulation

Multiple Coin Toss Model
The Multiple Coin Toss model displays the result of the flipping of N coins. It was created using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool which allows a student to easily examine or modify the simulation if Ejs is installed.
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Featured Filing Cabinet

Demonstrates versions of simulations written with Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) for easier inspection and modification.

Modeling with Ejs

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This just in...

Jun 22	Investigation of students' reasoning regarding heat, work, and the first law of thermodynamics in an introductory calculus-based general physics course
Jun 22	Student understanding of the first law of thermodynamics: Relating work to the adiabatic compression of an ideal gas
Jun 22	A new statement of the second law of thermodynamics
Jun 22	A thermodynamic derivative means an experiment

The Statistical and Thermal Physics Project is supported by NSF DUE-0442581.