Recommendation for a Thermodynamics and/or Statistical Mechanics text?

[wotanub]

Right now I have Schroeder, and I'm not a fan of it, despite some of the rave reviews I have read. I'm thinking I need another text to learn from while taking this class. I have a copy of Fermi's Thermodynamics (somewhere), but I'm not exactly sure what's in it. I just think it's silly that I'm taking a beating in this class, but I'm getting A+ grades in Quantum Mechanics!

 

[jjustinn]

I've been looking for one as well, so hopefully someone has a suggestion. I've tried a couple that struck me as pretty dated, as well as dry -- the authors were Tolman (who is apparently highly regarded in his own right) and Hill, I forget the titles. I've skimmed the Gibbs text on Archive.org, and though it's much older, actually feels fresher than those two.

I just picked up Liboff's Kinetic Theory, which seems like it covers a lot of the same concepts from a more abstract standpoint, and is a pleasure to read, but it probably wouldn't be a good fit with a standard course, since the material covered seems to be much different than that covered by the more "standard" books.

People also seem to like Landau/Lifgarbagez, but I've always found those rather dry and unfulfilling as well (though I haven't actually read any of their statistical mechanics texts).

Anyone else?

 

[DrDu]

PT Landsberg, Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics,

 

[Useful nucleus]

For statistical mechanics, I highly recommend "Statistical Mechanics of Particles" by M. Kardar. The first chapter is a concise review of thermodynamics. In the 2nd chapter, Kardar reviews all the probability that you need for the rest of the book. Chapter 3 (the Toughest) is on the kinetic theory of gases (Boltzmann equation, H-theorem, ...). Chpater 4,5 are on Classical Statitical Mechanics. Chapter 6 is on quantum statitcal mechanics. Chapter 7 is concenred with quantum ideal gases Fermions, bosons).
The book is self-contained , concise and complete solutions for half of the problems are provided at the end of the text.

 

[cragar]

thermal physics by Daniel V. Schroeder