Statistical Mechanics on the BBC

Here are the BBC shows by Jim Al-Khalili on statistical mechanics that Mark Wilkinson mentioned in lecture today:

Order and Disorder, Episode 1: Energy

Order and Disorder, Episode 2: Information

(P.S. The titles of the shows make me want to make snarky comments about Episodes 1 and 2 of Star Wars.)

Update: Mark mentions that Maxwell's Demon is discussed at 24:40 in Episode 2.

Solution Sheet 2 Posted

Yes, yes it is.

Update (10/26/12): I have posted a slightly revised version of the second solution sheet.

Solution Sheet 1 Posted

See the title.

Update (10/20/12): I have posted a slightly revised version of these solutions.

Online Introduction to Renormalization and Universality

One of the more difficult conceptual topics in this module concerns renormalization groups.

Just posted on the arXiv today are some nice-looking lecture notes from some summer school that aims to give an introduction to renormalization and universality.

These notes look pretty good, so you might want to take a look at them when we get to that part of the module. I am posting this today because I am just seeing these now and I might forget to post this link later. We're not going to get to renormalization until close to the end of the module, so this introduction is actually for several weeks from now.