First lecture Advanced Statistical Mechanics 2012
The semester has begun. Today I gave my first lecture in Advanced Statistical Mechanics.
I enjoyed a rather big audience, typical for the first lecture. I’ve been honest about the level and manner of the course, so, thinking logically, the audience would shrink soon. From the other hand, why should I be logical? I was just glad to see and welcome new faces. Two students had to go earlier to catch the train to Leiden to attend some bio-directed course. I guess they were a bit dissapointed when I revealed that statistical mechanics is not meant to serve bio-sciences, but were polite not to show this and took active part in the lecture.
To compare with the last year, the audience seem to be a bit more active in general, I saw many people attending and questionning. I went faster than a year ago. Although I have not covered the whole thermodynamics, I made quite some progress. We are almost done with the laws.
All right, we’ll see how it’s going. The problem solving session will be given by Alina on Monday. So far all presentations are booked.
