The objective of this course is to develop a working knowledge of the laws and
methods of thermodynamics and elementary statistical mechanics and to use this
knowledge to explore various applications. Many of these applications will relate to
topics in materials science and the physics of condensed matter. The three laws of
classical thermodynamics, which deal with the existence of state functions for energy
and entropy, and the value of entropy at the absolute zero of temperature, are
developed along phenomenological lines; the existence and properties of the entropy;
different thermodynamic potentials and their uses; phase diagrams; introduction to
statistical mechanics and its relation to thermodynamics; treatment of ideal gases