Other than electrodynamics, another field in physics which I find interesting is Statistical Mechanics (SM). I must admit that initally I was attracted to this field was because of its connection to econophysics, an interdisciplinary field which mainly involved statistical mechanics to model financial markets. Nowadays quantum field theory is used too. But anyway, SM is undeniably one of the fundamental foundations of physics. In short, every physicist should at least have an intermediate knowledge in it, I feel.
So, as before, I will start right from the beginning of my analysis of NUS statistical mechanics. The inital brush with SM is purely on the thermodynamical aspects of it. In fact it is merely half a module. This part is relatively trivial and just a simple extension of A-levels thermody.
The second year SM starts to take the beef. The first half is thermody and the relation to physical chem becomes apparent. The second half is the real statistical part where permutations and combinations become crucial. Frankly speaking I must say that this module is one of the least mathematical of all. It is very abstract I must say. To fully understand and comprehend the concepts require quite a bit of time. I am not shy to admit I was quite lost initially. I wouldn't be surprised if people got through it but never understand it at all. Luckily there was someone around to spur me into thorough understanding.
The next time you approach SM will be in the fourth year. Erm... unfortunately I must say that I am quite clueless about the stuff in this module. Wish me all the best in tackling it!
I can't say that there is any definitive book for SM as this field has many approaches to it. Even in the 2nd year SM, I had to go through at least 5 different books to finally gain enlightenment. So mainly it depends on the style and inclination of the course.
