
Summary This video motivates the statistical mechanics approach through material structure and behavior. Entropy is introduced as a natural variable whose derivative with respect to energy is zero when the number of microstates is maximized. This derivative is identified as being the reciprocal of temperature, and Boltzmann’s constant is explained. Learning Objectives After watching this video students will be able to explain how the definition of temperature arises as a derivative of entropy with respect to energy. Funding provided by the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Developed by the Teaching and Learning Laboratory (TLL) at MIT for SUTD MIT © 2012