"Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, or statistical thermodynamics for short, are core subjects of undergraduate courses for students in physics and considered to be among the most challenging. Depending on the teaching approach, the courses begin with the axiomatic postulates of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics or the microscopic behavior of large systems governed by statistical mechanics. While both approaches have their merits, the methods of statistical mechanics allow for a deeper understanding of the ...
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"Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, or statistical thermodynamics for short, are core subjects of undergraduate courses for students in physics and considered to be among the most challenging. Depending on the teaching approach, the courses begin with the axiomatic postulates of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics or the microscopic behavior of large systems governed by statistical mechanics. While both approaches have their merits, the methods of statistical mechanics allow for a deeper understanding of the principles involved and the treatment of important topics such as photon gases that are out of the reach of phenomenological thermodynamics. It also brings clarity to notoriously misunderstood concepts such as entropy"--
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