APS Excellence in Physics Education Award
November 2019

Education Prize Logo
Science SPORE Prize
November 2011

NSF Logo
The Open Source Physics Project is supported by NSF DUE-0442581.

Teaching Statistical Physics by Thinking about Models and Algorithms Documents

Main Document

Teaching Statistical Physics by Thinking about Models and Algorithms 

written by Jan Tobochnik and Harvey Gould

This article discusses several ways of illustrating fundamental concepts in statistical and thermal physics by considering various models and algorithms. We emphasize the importance of replacing students' incomplete mental images by models that are physically accurate. In some cases it is sufficient to discuss the results of an algorithm or the behavior of a model rather than having students write a program.

Published April 1, 2008
Last Modified July 14, 2008

This file is included in the full-text index.

OSP Projects:
Open Source Physics - EJS Modeling
Tracker
Physlet Physics
Physlet Quantum Physics
STP Book