Instructor: Prof. Jim Crutchfield (chaos@cse.ucdavis.edu; http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~chaos)
Teaching Assistant: Marcus Afshare (mafshar@physics.ucdavis.edu)
Grader: Milan Nikolic (nikolic@physics.ucdavis.edu)
Lectures: TuTh 10:30 - 11:50 AM
Location: 140 Physics/Geology

I. FIRST LECTURE: (8 January)

1. Introduction and motivations
2. Course logistics
3. Homework and exams
4. Labs and discussion sections
5. Introduce assistants
6. Materials: Books, articles, website

II. WEEKS 1-5: Relativity
Reading: The Laws of Physics are Frame-Independent, Moore
Theme: Observers in motion

1. Principle of relativity
2. Synchronization
3. Time
4. Metric equation
5. Proper time
6. Coordinate transformations
7. Lorentz contraction
8. Speed of light
9. Four-momentum

III. MID-TERM EXAM: Special Relativity

IV. WEEKS 5-10: Thermal Physics
Reading: Some Processes are Irreversible, Moore
Theme: Microscopic behavior versus macroscopic organization, origins of randomness

1. Temperature
2. Ideal gases
3. Gas processes
4. Macrostates and microstates
5. The second law
6. Temperature and entropy
7. Mysteries resolved
8. Changes in entropy
9. Heat engines
10. Special topic: Origins of randomness and deterministic chaos
11. Special topic: Nonequilibrium and self-organization

V. FINAL EXAM: TBD