Franz J Vesely 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 243 doi:10.1088/0143-0807/26/2/003
Franz J Vesely
Show affiliationsA new approach to teaching introductory statistical physics is presented. We recommend making extensive use of the fact that even systems with a very few degrees of freedom may display chaotic behaviour. This permits a didactic 'bottom-up' approach, starting out with toy systems whose phase space may be depicted on a screen or blackboard, then proceeding to ever higher dimensions in Gibbsean phase space.
Issue 2 (March 2005)
Received 8 October 2004, in final form 1 November 2004
Published 11 January 2005
Franz J Vesely 2005 Eur. J. Phys. 26 243
T Garidi et al 2005 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 38 245
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