Maximizing entropy

Statistical Mechanics (Spring, 2013)

Lecture Playlist

  1. Entropy and conservation of information

  2. Temperature

  3. Maximizing entropy

  4. The Boltzmann distribution

  5. Pressure of an ideal gas and fluctuations

  6. Weakly interacting gases, heat, and work

  7. Entropy vs. reversibility

  8. Entropy, reversibility, and magnetism

  9. Tbe Ising model

  10. Liquid-gas phase transition

April 15, 2013

After reviewing the laws of thermodynamics, Professor Susskind begins the derivation of how energy states are distributed for a complex system system with many energy states.

As the number of particles in a system grows, the distribution of states clumps more tightly around a mean. This is the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. The derivation requires Sterling's approximation and Lagrange multipliers.

References