Instructor:  Todd Gingrich

Office:  Ryan 4018

Office Hours:   Thursday 4-5 pm, Ryan 4018

Telephone:  510-457-8600

Email:  todd.gingrich@northwestern.edu

TA:  Kate Murphy

Office Hours:   Tuesday 3-4 pm, Thursday 5-6 pm, 4026 Ryan Hall

Email:  CathrynMurphy2027@u.northwestern.edu

Lecture:  Tech LG52

Time:  TuTh 9:30-10:50am CST

Midterm Exam:  Thursday, November 6.

Please consult the course syllabus for course objective and policies.

The course website (this site) will be used to post lecture notes, special notes, homework assignments, and homework solutions.

Lecture notes:

• Tuesday, September 16, 2025: Introduction to the course, dynamics in chemistry, chaos, and ergodicity hypothesis. [Link]
  
• Thursday, September 18, 2025: Microcanonical entropy and systems with fluctuating energy. [Link]
  
• Tuesday, September 23, 2025: The Boltzmann distribution. [Link]
  

Homework assignments will normally be made available on this website by Thursday of each week, and will be due on Friday of the following week at 5 pm. Late work will only be accepted if arrangements are made in advance or if there are particularly exceptional circumstances. 

• Problem Set 0, due Never! [PlottingDemo.ipynb]
  
• Problem Set 1, due Friday, September 26 at 5 pm. [BiasedCoinFlips.ipynb]