Outside Reading

Although there is no formal text for this course, you should be doing a couple hours a week of reading. You are all mature enough to find readings on your own that supplement parts of the lecture that are hard to understand. There is a section below that lists some of the thousands of books on thermodynamics. People tend to like the second book on thermodynamics that they use more than the first. I think this is because thermodynamics is deceptively subtle and students really need some familiarity with the difficulties before they can understand them.

If you are having trouble finding outside reading for a particular--ask!

This struggle with familiarity creates a dilemma for professors of thermodynamics: should the first course in thermodynamics be taught as formulaic solving of the standard problems--or should one try to teach the more philosophical aspects of the subject. I am not sure which is the best approach. I was educated with the practical first approach, but I have chosen the second for MIT 3.00 because I find it more interesting and hopefully more useful in the long-run. I am pretty sure that this theoretical approach is not the best for every student; but, I hope that it is best for the majority.

As a hedge, I have worked with past TA's of this course to create a library of practical solved problems for each week. You can find these on the 3.00 website. I encourage you to study the practical problems.