Thermo/StatMech
Category archives for Thermo/StatMech
How Good Is My Starbucks Cup?
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 26, 2013 
It’s been a while since I’ve done a post over-analyzing some everyday situation, because I’ve been too busy to do any silly experiments. We’re on break this week, though, so I took a little time Monday to bring excessive technology to bear on the critically important scientific question: how good is my insulated Starbucks cup?…
Direct and Indirect Heating: Why Don’t Power Plants Change Local Climate?
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 19, 2013 This past weekend, I was at Boskone, where I appeared on a few science-y panels. One of these was on the possibility of beaming power down from space: Energy From Space Beam me down some juice, Scotty? Let’s talk about the possibilities — and practicalities — of really long-distance power transmission. Tom Easton (M), Jordin…
How Do You Make Negative Temperatures, Anyway?
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 14, 2013 
Last week’s post talked about the general idea of negative temperature, with reference to this much-talked-about Science paper (which also comes in a free arxiv version from which the figures used here are taken). I didn’t go into the details of how they made a negative temperature gas, though, and as it’s both very clever…
What Does “Negative Temperature” Mean, Anyway?
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 8, 2013 The most talked-about physics paper last week was probably Negative Absolute Temperature for Motional Degrees of Freedom (that link goes to the paywalled journal; there’s also a free arxiv preprint from which the above figure is taken). It’s a catchy but easily misinterpreted title– Negative absolute temperature! Below Absolute Zero! Thermodynamics is wrong!– that obscures…
Final Notes on a Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 27, 2012 We’re in the home stretch of this term, and it has become clear that I won’t actually be using the toy model of the arrow of time I’ve talked about in the past in my timekeeping class this term. These things happen. Having spent a not-insignificant amount of time playing with the thing, though, I…
Notes Toward a Toy Model of the Arrow of Time
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 23, 2012 I’m fairly certain somebody has already done this, because it’s such an obvious idea. It’s a little beyond my cargo-cult VPython skills right at the moment, though (I can probably learn to do it, but not right now), and I none of the applets I Googled up seemed to be doing this, so I’m posting…
Difficult Problems in Automotive Thermodynamics
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 20, 2012 While clearing the cars of frost Thursday morning, I was reminded of a difference of opinion Kate and I have about the best approach to a cold car. I tend to start the car up, and immediately turn the defrost on full blast; she prefers to let the car warm up for a while first,…
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Science Works
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 19, 2011 Moving along in our countdown to Newton’s birthday, we come to 1900, and one of the most revolutionary moment in the history of physics, represented in today’s equation: This is Max Planck’s formula for the spectrum of the “black-body” radiation emitted by a hot object at temperature T. It’s also the equation highlighted on what…
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Entropy
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 18, 2011 As I said yesterday, I’m going to blow through another entire subfield of physics in a single equation, as our march toward Newton’s Birthday continues. Today, it’s statistical mechanics, a very rich field of study that we’re boiling down to a single equation: This is Boltzmann’s formula for the entropy of a macroscopic system of…
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Ideal Gas
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 17, 2011 Once again, the advent calendar is delayed until late at night by a busy day with SteelyKid– soccer in the morning, playing with a trebuchet after lunch, then Arthur Christmas at the Colonie mall. We’re running low on days to honor great milestones in physics, though, so I don’t want to skip a day entirely.…
