> Don't get me started on "aluminium".
Interesting! Wikipedia indicates "aluminum" is the original spelling, but "aluminium" became more popular. I suppose Americans should respect the "International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry" and call it 'aluminium', if they want world peace (i.e. international cooperation) ...
> Are you saying it should be 1.0C°?
Yes. Perhaps Daniel Schroeder was trying to be a trendsetter with this instruction. I think the distinction is valuable as it adds clarity and beauty to language. However, perhaps it's pedantic, as I can't think of another example: We don't make a distinction when reporting differences in length, time, pressure, mass, volume, current, or radioactivity ...
Great answer. For people who would like to see more, a similar argument to the one above is given in the book An Introduction to Thermal Physics by Schroeder (of Peskin and Schroeder fame). What I like about this book is that it really emphasizes the statistical nature of the 2nd law of thermodynamics and shows that you can have entropy decrease in some systems, i.e. when the number of particles is small.
Alternative to Schroeder "An Introduction to Thermal Physics" for self-study?
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Thermal-Physics-Daniel-Schroeder/dp/0201380277
Overall this is quite a good book but I am trying to use it for self-study and the author refuses to release any answers to the problems. His explanation was that if he releases any answers he cannot later un-release them.
Compounding this, his problems are often multi-stage problems where parts of a problem depend on earlier parts and one problem depends on the result of previous problems. In some cases you have 3 multi-stage problems building upon one another. At some point you realize something went wrong but you have no clue where...
OK lesson learned: For self study you need answers so you can check your understanding. This is just basic learning theory - you need feedback.
I have looked at a few TP books but none have answers for checking eg Kittel Thermal Physics, Blundell "Concepts in Thermal Physics".
He does have an answer book for instructors only.
I just finished week 4, took my first thermal physics test. Feel pretty good about it. The lecture is done by the head of our physics department and he is a very good teacher, and the text is Schroeder which is very easy to understand.
My other physics class is Electromagnetic theory, and that class is kicking my ass. I am having trouble figuring out how to set up problems, I have two review sessions with others in the class this weekend before the first test (one week from today).
Check out this text book:
It goes from simple understanding to the statistical mechanics of what's going on.
Steer clear of engineering books if you want a good understanding as they often cut corners(because alot of stuff that is deeper doesn't apply to them) to make it more applicable to their design work.
> reduce a patient's body temperature by 0.25 degrees Celsius
Pedant physicist here (since this is a place to discuss science): Because it's a temperature interval, the correct expression is "0.25 Celsius degrees", i.e. to distinguish from Fahrenheit degrees and kelvin. "0.25 degrees Celsius" is near freezing temperature for water at Earth's atmospheric pressure (i.e. it's a temperature, not a temperature interval).
Using notation, the degree symbol goes after the letter unless it's kelvin, in which case there is no degree symbol either way (temperature or temperature interval).