Concepts in Thermal Physics

by Stephen J. Blundell, Katherine Blundell

An understanding of thermal physics is crucial to much of modern physics, chemistry and engineering. This book provides a modern introduction to the main principles that are foundational to thermal physics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. The key concepts are carefully presented in a clear way, and new ideas are illustrated with copious worked examples as well as a description of the historical background to their discovery. Applications are presented tosubjects as diverse as stellar astrophysics, information and communication theory, condensed matter physics and climate change. Each chapter concludes with detailed exercises.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.

Genres: Physics, Science, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Mathematics, Academics

516 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 10, 2006

Reviews

[Chase Rendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite physics textbooks that I own. I don't think I would recommend it necessarily to someone who is learning thermal physics for the first time since there are not too many rigorous derivations in the sense of a Griffiths textbook, but if you already have some knowledge of the subject and are looking to go back and expand your knowledge, this may be the book for you. In my opinion, this book really shines by covering a much wider range of topics compared to most other thermal physics textbooks, and Blundell is masterful at explaining the concepts and connecting them to simple equations. Each chapter has a handful of relatively simple problems that are fun to solve. This book feels very much like a cousin of the Feynman Lectures.

[lumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

- plot: amazing. breathtaking. was engaged from the very first page.
- characters: phenomenal. bunch of old men mixed in with young adults who had no idea what they were doing. from mentally ill communists to Napoleon's pals, this book got you covered. it was very exciting and heartwarming to see all the characters develop throughout the story <3
- pacing: was a bit confusing at times, but probably because i'm dumb. still much better than say, mathematics books. those will fill 5 pages just to say that sin(x) = x. overall, nice but could be a bit slowed down. (won't complain though, because i sped through like 15 chapters of this thanks to its practicality and lack of boring explanations)
- writing: my favourite part about this book!! the authors are super funny and it even made me think i had friends to study with!! they make jokes every 3 or 4 paragraphs and the way they explain concepts was extremely easy to follow. i wish i could write like this :D

honestly, this book slaps. give it a chance if you just like reading, really. it will make you laugh out loud, cry, rethink all your life decisions, and question how the world works! good times

[on a more serious note, though: i actually enjoyed 'reading' this and solving all the problems! i'll never forget the spherical chicken and how long one can keep it in their fridge before it rots, or something like that. the explanations were again, quite easy to follow even to a small-brained person like me and who didn't even know what an adiabatic process was!! i used to hate thermodynamics but i can now say that it's probably my favorite part of Physics and to that, i must thank the Blundell's for writing this masterpiece and saving so many depressed physics students <3]

[Bohdan Shevchenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Не думав, що читаючи книжку з термодинаміки можна заплакати від краси

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently clear introduction to a complex topic.

[Tue Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. and Mrs. Blundell have succeeded in writing a lucid textbook in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, which is not an easy task. I also enjoyed the historical notes. I will be returning to this wonderful book as a reference.

[Richard Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

good schtuff

[Habeeb Alnaqi | حبيب النقي · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was able to rely completely on this book. It is very sufficient in teaching you the ideas and concepts.

The only downfall, which is a downfall in nearly every physics textbook, is that it doesn’t prepare you well to be able to solve the exercises on your own.

(I read only 20 chapters of it)

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thrilling page turner that gripped and captivated me for the entire duration of its flight from hand to recycling

[Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Done with basic recaps of heat engine and basic thermodynamics. I find this book to be pretty clear, but somewhat different flavour from the Schroeder text.

[Phillip Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book. It is not overly detailed but instead focuses on the principles and concepts (and is rightly titled). Although it doesn't provide a particularly large example of applications of its concepts, I found that I was usually able to solve most problems at the end of each section simply because the author's explanation was great enough that examples were unnecessary. If one was to tell me that Griffiths writes like this, I would have to conclude that I must have a better intuition for thermodynamics than quantum mechanics -- or that person doesn't make any sense to me.

[Navid Aliakbarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Index hasn't been arranged well.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive overview of classical thermodynamics (and a little bit of statistical mechanics) for the introductory collegiate level. I learned a lot!

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly good undergraduate approach to stat mech that is still accessible without sacrificing important mathematics.

[Charlie Wu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best place to start learning thermal/statistical physics

[lilu · Rating 5 out of 5]

omfg this is savingggg my thermodynamics exam fuck anyone who doesn’t like this book this is my bible my holy grail fuck it uppppp steve & kate ‼️

[Mac Zhou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty surprisingly goated shoutout to my guy Boltzmann. shoutout my goats the Blundell duo as well bc theyre witty little buggers #LuvThatProse

[Sangeet. S · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant textbook on Thermal Physics for an introduction. The authors do a very good job in keeping the text well organized with sufficient rigor.

Unlike most of it's contemporaries, it's approach is very clear and involves much less hand waving.

It also contains sufficient advanced topics to bridge into the more advanced Statistical Mechanics courses which are also presented very clearly, thus making it a very complete text for freshmen and sophomores.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent textbook, but it unfortunately contains a fair number of errors. It would also be nice if it went more in depth.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best textbook I came across in my undergraduate years - explains concepts well and is very funny in places!

[Hangci Du · Rating 5 out of 5]

The text book I used.

very easy to use and learn.