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Statistical Mechanics Has a Good Beat and You Can Dance To It

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Last Spring, I taught the second term of University of Oregon’s statistical mechanics / thermodynamics for physics majors course (syllabus). I might at some point describe how the course went and what lessons might be drawn, beyond the key lesson that statistical mechanics is a wonderful subject. For now, something far less substantial: I often play music before the start of classes I teach, usually something instrumental. For this course, however, I thought I’d play songs that have some (perhaps tenuous) connection to the subject of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. It was a lot of fun to come up with a list of possibilities. My wife suggested a few songs, as did various friends, and except for the first day’s song (#1 Chicago Transit Authority: Beginnings (1969)), chosen because it was the beginning of the term, all songs fit the topic. I ruled out “nerdy” songs that actually aim to say something about science.

In addition to playing the songs, each pre-class piece had two or three quiz questions. Usually I asked if anyone could identify the band, and then the year, the connection to statistical mechanics, or some other bit of trivia. There were points associated with this, of course not connected to the course grade, but points that I tabulated to give out little prizes at the end of the term.

The class had a lot of fun with the music and the music quizzes, as did I, though the students’ performance on the quizzes was generally mediocre. Kids these days…

By popular demand (actually, two people asking me for the list), and to serve as a resource for others, here are the songs. Hopefully future students don’t find this page.

#2 The Bee Gees: Night Fever (1978). The cryptic connection to the course topic is one of the most difficult to figure out of the whole set. I let students look things up after class and see what they could come up with. (It’s not the word “fever.”)

#3 Toots and the Maytals: Pressure Drop (1968)

#4 Vanilla Ice: Ice Ice Baby (1990) And Queen: Under Pressure (1981); suggested by several people.

#5 The Vince Guaraldi Trio: Skating (1965). What’s the connection to course topics?

#6 Fiona Apple: Hot Knife (2012).

#7 Belle & Sebastian: The State That I Am In (1996). Where would statistical mechanics be if we couldn’t enumerate the states we’re in? I was quite proud of thinking of this one…

#8 Joy Division: Disorder (1979) … and this; also a fantastic song.

#9 The Rolling Stones: Tumbling Dice (1972)

#10 Mason Williams: Classical Gas (1968) One of the most appropriate titles; no lyrics, so impossible to guess for anyone who doesn’t know it!

#11 Katy Perry: Hot N Cold (start at 0:33) (2008). This might have been the most recognized song. I asked: How many views does the YouTube video have (+/- 5%)? (Several thousand of them are from me.)

#12 The Minutemen: Viet Nam ; also Cohesion (1984). The first has too subtle a connection to probability, but I included it anyway. An excellent song. The second is there just because the first is only a minute and a half long.

#13 ABBA: Take a Chance on Me (1977) A bit probabilistic!

#14 Blondie: Atomic and Accidents Never Happen. (1979) Admittedly tenuous connections to statistical mechanics — Accidents Never Happen directly argues against notions of chance, which gets at deep philosophical issues about the foundations of physics, perhaps. Anyway, I used whatever rationalization I could so that I could play Blondie.

#15 Philip Glass: from Einstein on the Beach (1976). “Knee Play 2“. There are pleasant pieces by Philip Glass. This is not one of them.

#17 Robert Johnson: They’re Red Hot There’s a nice slowed down version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blh4ZLKV9Yc . (1937)

#18 The Beach Boys: Good Vibrations (1966). Suggested by Dan Rokhsar.

#19 Modern English: I Melt with You. (1982)

End: The Velvet Underground: White Light / White Heat (1968)

Things I didn’t use:

Feel free to borrow these, and add your own!

Today’s illustration…

An easter lily cactus, based on this photo.

— Raghuveer Parthasarathy Sept. 12, 2023

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