• Clear exposition and reader-friendly style.
• Many helpful figures.
• Lots of short, easily digestible chapters.
• Modern, relevant examples involving exciting areas of physics
• Mathematical ideas summarised in comprehensive appendices.

New to this edition

• The second edition of this popular textbook maintains the structure and lively style of the first edition but extends its coverage of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics to include several new topics, including osmosis, diffusion problems, Bayes theorem, radiative transfer, the Ising model and Monte Carlo methods. New examples and exercises have been added throughout.

Readership: Undergraduate students in chemistry, material science and engineering. Graduate students in physics and all these subjects. Researchers in physical science subjects wanting an accessible and relevant resource for thermal physics.

Stephen J. Blundell, University of Oxford, UK, and Katherine M. Blundell, University of Oxford, UK

Review(s) from previous edition

"The best book I have ever encountered at this level ... a winner. - Michael C. Mackey, McGill University

"With so many results derived from so few assumptions, it is important that the presentation be clear and logical. Concepts in Thermal Physics by Stephen J. Blundell and Katherine M. Blundell fulfills that need admirably ... Concepts in Thermal Physics provides an excellent introduction to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. It deserves serious consideration as a textbook for any undergraduate course on those topics. " - Physics Today

"...elementary and admirably clear expositions of a wide range of subjects not often found in introductory texts... many coming to the subject for the first time will want to consult this book. " - Contemporary Physics

I: PRELIMINARIES
1: Introduction
2: Heat
3: Probability
4: Temperature and the Boltzmann factor
II: KINETIC THEORY OF GASES
5: The Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution
6: Pressure
7: Molecular effusion
8: The mean free path and collisions
III: TRANSPORT AND THERMAL DIFFUSION
9: Transport properties in gases
10: The thermal diffusion equation
IV: THE FIRST LAW
11: Energy
12: Isothermal and adiobatic processes
V: THE SECOND LAW
13: Heat engines and the second law
14: Entropy
15: Information theory
VI: THERMODYNAMICS IN ACTION
16: Thermodynamic potentials
17: Rods, bubbles and magnets
18: The third law
VII: STATISTICAL MECHANICS
19: Equipartition of energy
20: The partition function
21: Statistical mechanics of an ideal gas
22: The chemical potential
23: Photons
24: Phonons
VIII: BEYOND THE IDEAL GAS
25: Relativistic gases
26: Real gases
27: Cooling real gases
28: Phase transitions
29: Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions
30: Quantum gases and condensates
IX: SPECIAL TOPICS
31: Sound waves
32: Shock waves
33: Brownian motion and fluctuations
34: Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
35: Stars
36: Compact objects
37: Earth's atmosphere

SOLUTIONS MANUAL available for instructors