group Small Group Activity
10 min.
This small group activity has students reasoning about how the Planck distribution shifts when the temperature is doubled. This leads to a qualitative argument for the Stefan-Boltzmann law.
30 min.
This lecture is one step in motivating the form of the Planck distribution.
face Lecture
These are notes, essentially the equation sheet, from the final review session for Thermal and Statistical Physics.
computer Computer Simulation
Students use a PhET to explore properties of the Planck distribution.
120 min.
These notes from the fourth week of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover blackbody radiation and the Planck distribution. They include a number of small group activities.
These notes from week 6 of Thermal and Statistical Physics cover the ideal gas from a grand canonical standpoint starting with the solutions to a particle in a three-dimensional box. They include a number of small group activities.