Thermodynamics of Solids
Thermodynamics of solids covering condensed matter applications in materials science, including heat, work, entropy, and heat engines.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.91 GPA, 93.1% A/AB (n=29 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.47 GPA, 67.6% A/AB (n=34 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.13 GPA, 46.7% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Describe relationships between heat, work, and entropy and its implications for heat engines
Describe the connection between microscopic states and thermodynamic variables and how to calculate the latter from the former using partition functions
Describe how mixing alters the free energy of the unmixed components in terms of ideal and non-ideal contributions
Describe the role of thermodynamic potentials and their implications for materials properties
Describe how Gibbs energy, chemical potential, and activity are related and their role in chemical equilibrium
Read and interpret different types of phase diagrams
Analyze a scientific or engineering problem to obtain selected insights enabled by thermodynamic analysis and communicate them at a basic level
Analyze a scientific or engineering problem to obtain the major insights enabled by thermodynamic analysis and communicate them at a semi-professional level
Source: UW Guide
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapM S & E 330, or graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students
“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- MS&E 330
- graduate/professional standing
- member of Engineering Guest Students
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.91 GPA, 93.1% A/AB (n=29 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.47 GPA, 67.6% A/AB (n=34 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.13 GPA, 46.7% A/AB (n=15 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Heat, work, entropy, and heat engines
- Microscopic states, thermodynamic variables, and partition functions
- Mixing effects on free energy with ideal and non-ideal contributions
- Gibbs energy, chemical potential, activity, and chemical equilibrium
- Phase diagrams
Skills
- Analyze scientific or engineering problems using thermodynamic analysis and communicate insights at basic and semi-professional levels.
- Read and interpret different types of phase diagrams.
Grades
Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Fall 2025
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
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Raw records
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Student reviews
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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"observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
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