Errata

p. 135, Table 14.1,first row: the symbol for "greater than or equal to", generated by \ge and \geq should be \(\ge\), of course.


p. 179, code listing: The line

f_sq[t >= T] = f[t < T]

should read

f_sq[t >= T] = f_sq[t < T]

p. 185: the formula given for the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecular speeds is for the probability density of the velocity, \(\boldsymbol{v}\) where the vector velocity, \(\boldsymbol{v} = (v_x, v_y, v_z)\). That is,

\[ f(\boldsymbol{v}) = \left(\frac{m}{2\pi k_\mathrm{B}T}\right)^{3/2}\exp\left(-\frac{mv^2}{2k_\mathrm{B}T}\right), \]

where the molecular speed, \(v = \sqrt{v_x^2 + v_y^2 + v_z^2}\) and \(f(\boldsymbol{v})\) is normalized such that \(\int f(\boldsymbol{v})\;\mathrm{d}v_x\,\mathrm{d}v_y\,\mathrm{d}v_z = 1\). This is more usefully expressed as a probability density over the speed:

\[ f(v) = 4\pi v^2 \left(\frac{m}{2\pi k_\mathrm{B}T}\right)^{3/2}\exp\left(-\frac{mv^2}{2k_\mathrm{B}T}\right), \]