Classical Best Textbook for thermodynamics and statistical mechanics

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The discussion centers around a student expressing frustration with their professor's teaching style and the assigned textbook, "Thermal Physics" by Schroeder. The professor has discarded the textbook in favor of their own materials, complicating the student's ability to study effectively. In search of alternatives, the student seeks recommendations for other textbooks to aid in understanding the subject, particularly as they are currently studying Maxwell relations. Other forum members suggest several textbooks, including the Berkeley Series: Statistical Physics by Reif and "Thermal Physics" by Kittel and Kroemer, to enhance the student's learning experience. The student emphasizes a preference for solving problems independently before seeking help, aiming to reinforce their understanding of the material.
grandpa2390
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ok so I am in this class... but my professor is not very helpful. I'm not really caring for the assigned textbook, I want to try a different one. One of the issues is that my professor just threw the textbook away and is doing his own thing, so it is difficult to try and study from the textbook. But maybe a different textbook can help me before I plague the site with dumb questions :)
 
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grandpa2390 said:
I'm not really caring for the assigned textbook
Which is...? (Just so people here don't waste time recommending it to you. :oldwink:)
 
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jtbell said:
Which is...? (Just so people here don't waste time recommending it to you. :oldwink:)

You're right, I'm sorry. I thought about that, but I didn't put down the title for some reason. it is Thermal Physics by Schroeder
 
Callen, H. B.: Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics, 2 edition, John Wiley&Sons, 1985
 
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Start with the Berkeley Series: Statistical Physics by Reif, then go on to Thermal and Statistical Physics by Reif. Throw in Thermal Physics by Kittel and Kroemer and you'll know plenty...
 
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Thanks guys and gals (don't want to offend, forum doesn't tell me genders)

I'm at maxwell relations in class and need all the reading, and cross-referencing I can get ;)

applying the relations themselves is simple enough. but the problems my professor is expecting us to solve...

before asking questions I like to try and figure it out on my own. If I take a week to solve a problem and do it on my own. I won't forget the solution too quickly lol.
 
The book is fascinating. If your education includes a typical math degree curriculum, with Lebesgue integration, functional analysis, etc, it teaches QFT with only a passing acquaintance of ordinary QM you would get at HS. However, I would read Lenny Susskind's book on QM first. Purchased a copy straight away, but it will not arrive until the end of December; however, Scribd has a PDF I am now studying. The first part introduces distribution theory (and other related concepts), which...
I've gone through the Standard turbulence textbooks such as Pope's Turbulent Flows and Wilcox' Turbulent modelling for CFD which mostly Covers RANS and the closure models. I want to jump more into DNS but most of the work i've been able to come across is too "practical" and not much explanation of the theory behind it. I wonder if there is a book that takes a theoretical approach to Turbulence starting from the full Navier Stokes Equations and developing from there, instead of jumping from...

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