Defining statistical mechanics: Statistical Mechanics provies the connection
between microscopic motion of individual atoms of matter and
macroscopically observable properties such as temperature, pressure,
entropy, free energy,
heat capacity, chemical potential, viscosity, spectra, reaction rates, etc.
Why do we need Statistical Mechanics:
1.
Statistical Mechanics provides the microscopic basis for thermodynamics,
which, otherwise, is just a phenomenological theory.
2.
Microscopic basis allows calculation of a wide variety of properties
not dealt with in thermodynamics, such as structural properties, using distribution functions,
and dynamical properties - spectra, rate constants, etc., using time correlation
functions.
3.
Because a statistical mechanical formulation of a problem
begins with a detailed microscopic description,
microscopic trajectories can, in principle and in practice, be generated
providing a window into the microscopic world. This window often provides
a means of connecting certain macroscopic properties with particular
modes of motion in the complex dance of the individual atoms that compose
a system, and this, in turn, allows for interpretation of experimental data
and an elucidation of the mechanisms of energy and mass transfer in a system.
