Statistical and Thermal Physics with Computer Applications

What distinguishes this book from other undergraduate thermal physics texts is its emphasis on applications and its extensive reference to computer simulations. If we could use Archilochus’s celebrated aphorism, Richmond Lattimore, Greek Lyrics.¹ (“The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one. One good one.”) to divide all thermal physics books into two categories, I would classify Statistical and Thermal Physics as a fox. The thermal physics textbooks with which I am familiar Terrell L. Hill, An Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics,² F. Reif, Fundamentals of Statistical and Thermal Physics,³ L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Statistical Physics,⁴ F. Mandl, Statistical Physics,⁵ and Ralph Baierlein, Thermal Physics,⁶ are all foxes. Monographs (e.g., Enrico Fermi, Thermodynamics,⁷ and Oliver Penrose, Foundations of Statistical Mechanics: A Deductive Treatment⁸ are, typically, hedgehogs. But there are exceptions to the rule...