Thermal Physics on the Web
-
About Temperature is actually a historical overview of a variety
of important thermal physics concepts, written at an elementary level.
- The How Things Work Web
site explains lots of everyday applications of thermal physics.
-
Fuel cells are described in this Scientific American article. See also
The Hypercar Center for more
about super-efficient cars.
- Phil Nelson's home page
has links to his fascinating articles on
DNA
elasticity and
Statistical
mechanics of membranes.
- Several white dwarf stars are shown in this
photo made by the
Hubble Space Telescope. For comparison, here's a
photo of a neutron star.
(Sorry, I couldn't find a photo of a black
hole, but here's a FAQ list.)
- The
COBE Home Page has all sorts of information about the Cosmic Background
Explorer satellite which has measured and mapped the background radiation.
- The BEC home page is a compilation of
reports of recent results in Bose-Einstein condensation. The University of Colorado
physics department has an
elementary tutorial on the subject with java animations.
See also the
press release from the 1995 rubidium experiment, and related news
articles on Bose-Einstein
condensation of hydrogen,
the
atom laser, and superfluid
helium-3.
- The Helsinki University of Technology Low Temperature
Laboratory web site describes the laboratory's activities and includes a
wonderful picture archive.
- No Information
Without Representation is a fascinating press release describing recent
research on the relation between information and entropy.
- The NIST Webbook is an excellent database
of thermodynamic data.
- The STP Curriculum Development Project
site has some very useful lists of resources.
- Entropy
on the World Wide Web is a mathematician's annotated bibliography
on entropy, especially in the generalized information-theoretic
sense of the term.
- The Thermodynamics
Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago has
numerous links to thermodynamic data and educational sites.
- Just for fun, check
out Heaven is Hotter
than Hell,
Cosmic Gall, and
Physics Humor (a page of many links).
- Here are links to photos and biographies of famous thermal physicists:
Last modified on June 27, 2000.
