This course will give a general introduction to MATLAB, one of the most common scientific programming platforms used today. We'll learn about ways to analyze and display laboratory data and then try to build our own scientific models to simulate natural processes. Students are welcome to bring their own data or ideas for models or can work on developing one of the examples we use in class. No programming experience is necessary – MATLAB will be a new language for most people so we'll start from the basics and then let everyone progress at their own pace through the projects. At the end of this course, students will be able to use MATLAB for basic tasks and, most importantly, feel comfortable extending their knowledge using MATLAB’s extensive help library.

Einstein famously said of Thermodynamics: "It is the only physical theory of universal content, which I am convinced, that within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts will never be overthrown." It is a theory that shows up every field of science in some way and provides very strong tools for answering questions about what happens in nature. However, it’s also a hard subject, full of new concepts (such as heat, work, entropy, enthalpy) with definitions that fit together delicately but precisely. As Arnold Sommerfeld said, “Thermodynamics is a funny subject. The first time you go through it, you don’t understand it at all. The second time you go through it, you think you understand it, except for one or two small points. The third time you go through it, you know you don’t understand it, but by that time you are used to it, so it doesn’t bother you any more.” This course will provide an overview of the subject as physicists view it, with plenty of time to ponder and discuss the four fundamental laws, ideal gases and as many applications of them as we can fit in. We’ll also introduce Statistical Mechanics briefly and discuss how the connection is made between large scale and small scale physics. Based on: Equilibrium Thermodynamics, C.J. Adkins