The best way to study is not to study when you do not wish to.

This book grew from course lecture notes for an advanced undergraduate level thermal physics course called “Statistical Physics, a jogging course,” aimed at the top third of students. However, I believe every student graduating from physics should have some understanding of the topics in this book. Therefore, I tried to give detailed derivations of all the formulas. Since I learned mathematics and physics without attending any course (beyond 300 in the US level), I certainly wished to have books filled with details and with all the problems solved.

However, I learned some willpower was needed to use such books effectively, because learning is always “active learning”; If one wishes to build one's muscle, some load is required. Therefore, always try to guess the next line or step in the derivation/transformation of formulas before reading the lines. Think what you would do if you were to encounter the problem as the first person in the world.

Each chapter has a Summary, Key words, and The reader should be able to at the beginning. “Summary” tells the reader what the section will discuss. Since it is placed at the beginning of each chapter, the reader will not be able to understand fully what it summarizes, but still some flavor of the section can be sensed. The summary should be checked again after finishing the section. “Key words” is a list of concepts/technical terms the reader must be able to explain to her intelligent lay friends. “The reader should be able to” is a list of minimal (mostly practical) items the reader should be able to do with comfort.

Each chapter has a modular structure, consisting of about ten numbered short units with titles such as “21.14 Sanov's Theorem and Entropy Maximization.” This should make the main line of each unit explicit and easy to grasp. A few units with dagger marks (†) are slightly advanced. There are other units which are details or side issues that the reader can skip or browse through, these are indicated by an asterisk (∗).