Daniel Schroeder: Introduction to Thermal Physics

I just released my podcast conversation with physicist Daniel Schroeder on thermodynamics where we address two fundamental questions: “What is temperature?” and “What is entropy?”. Dan is the author of two revered physics textbooks An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (with M. Peskin) and An Introduction to Thermal Physics both of which were used in my physics courses during my student days. This conversation was a lot of fun: a mix of physics, math, and philosophy of science. The first two are self-explanatory; as for philosophy, there is the perennial puzzle of the arrow of time and why entropy is increasing despite classical physics having time reversal symmetry. Our episode got a chance to delve into such conceptual issues which would ordinarily be swept under the rug in a traditional course on thermal physics.