Corrections to the Instructor's Solutions Manual to accompany

An Introduction to Thermal Physics

by Daniel V. Schroeder, Department of Physics, Weber State University

Here is a list of known substantive errors in the solution manual.

Corrections to the pdf version, published 2016

The pdf version is available to instructors from Oxford University Press. (It was previously available from Pearson, with no differences other than the copyright notices.) If you find errors in this version that are not listed here, please contact me at .

• Page 49. In the last line of the last equation on the page, the sign of the final term should be plus, not minus. (Thanks to D. Borrero; posted 11/2/21.)
• Page 76. In the third displayed equation, beginning with S(500 K), the units on the number 0.0414 should be J/K², not J/K. (Thanks to R. Rashkov; posted 8/22/22.)
• Page 99. In the second line of the solution to part (b), it should say that the enthalpy increases by 1.1 kJ per degree (not 2.1 kJ). Propagating this correction through, the calculation on the following line should give 0.91 kJ (not 1.75 kJ), and the enthalpy calculated on the next line should be 279.09 kJ (not 278.25 kJ). Although one could still justify rounding this value to 280 kJ, I secretly carried the more precise value through in the displayed calculation four lines farther down, where the result should be 2.62 (not 2.67). (Thanks to D. Borrero; posted 11/8/21.)
• Page 126. In part (b), the reference to Problem 1.13 should instead be to Problem 1.16. (Thanks to P. Cook; posted 11/8/23.)

Corrections to the printed version, published in January 2001

These errors (and some other less substantive errors) have been corrected in the 2016 pdf version of the solution manual. I apologize that I’ve lost track of who first brought some of these errors to my attention.

• Page 8. In the second displayed equation, within the big parentheses, the denominators of the second and third terms should be inverted to obtain (V/n) and (V/n)², respectively. (Thanks to G. Wiegerinck; posted 10/9/02.)
• Page 16. About 9 lines from the bottom of the page, the calligraphic N in the equation U = NkT/2 should be replaced by a normal N multiplied by f. (Posted 1/27/06.)
• Page 44. About six lines from the top of the page, the expression (1 - b/a) should be (1 + b/a) in both places (inside the logarithms). (Thanks to B. Blakie; Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 44. Just below the middle of the page, where it says "50 ln 50 = 50", the = sign should be a minus sign. (Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 74. In the last displayed equation for part (f), somewhat below the middle of the page, the fraction kT/epsilon should be inverted: epsilon/kT. (Posted 2/11/13.)
• Page 107. In the next-to-last line, the subscripts on the partial derivative should be N and T, not N and P. (Thanks to J. Lockhart; posted 3/19/01.)
• Page 126. The labels "Steam" and "Water" in the phase diagram should be interchanged. (Thanks to J. Lockhart; posted 3/26/01.)
• Page 162. Near the top of the page, the line pertaining to methane should not have a 2 in the final term. (Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 162. In the last displayed equation on the page, the numbers after the second equals sign should read "-46.3 +/- 106.8 = 153.1 or 60.5." This correction then propagates through the text just below: 50 becomes 60, 150 becomes 180, 200 becomes 160, and the final computation becomes 160/(2x60) = 4/3; the fraction 2/3 therefore becomes 4/7. (Thanks to A. Gavrin; posted 4/26/04.)
• Page 171. In the last displayed equation on the page, in the first exponent, 10.2/.862 should be 10.2/.819. (Thanks to J. Lockhart; posted 1/24/03.)
• Page 187. Please delete the extraneous = sign after first summation symbol, in the displayed equation at the middle of the page. (Thanks to J. Lockhart; posted 1/24/03.)
• Pages 191-194. The symbol P (script capital P) should be changed to D in the solutions to Problems 6.36, 6.38, and 6.41. (Thanks to J. Lockhart; posted 4/25/01.)
• Page 197. A few lines below the top of the page, in the numerical value of Boltzmann's constant, the exponent -5 should, of course, be attached to a missing factor of 10. (Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 208. Near the middle of the page, the ratio 10/55 is equal to 18%, not 10%. (Thanks to L. Cominsky; posted 1/17/01.)
• Page 211. At the end of the third line, the number .054 should be .034. (Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 215. The solution to Problem 7.18 should include a plot of the final expression.
• Page 259. In the last expression of the displayed equation in part (b), the factor of pi⁶ in the denominator should be pi². This change should also be made in the similar expressions that occur in the two displayed equations in part (c) lower on the page. In the last equation on the page, the factor of c⁶ in the numerator should also be changed to c⁴. Back in part (b), just below the displayed equation, the numerical answers 9 x 10^-31 and 6 x 10^-12 should both be increased by a factor of 100, so the exponents become -29 and -10, respectively. The number of photons emitted per second is approximately 40, not less than 1 as claimed. Amazingly, the numerical value of H given at the bottom of the page is correct, as are the further calculations on the following page. (Thanks to M. Davis; posted 7/23/04.)
• Page 331. At the end of the last equation on the page, the exponent should be -10, not +10. (Posted 3/30/03.)
• Page 332. In the last line on the page, the exponent 125 should be 95. (Posted 1/9/13.)
• Page 339. Near the middle of the page, at the end of part (a), Gamma(2/3) should be Gamma(3/2). (Posted 1/9/13.)

Last modified on November 8, 2023.