Abstract. A new approach to teaching introductory statistical physics is presented. We recommend making extensive use of the fact that even systems with a very few degrees of freedom may display chaotic behaviour. This permits a didactic 'bottom-up' approach, starting out with toy systems whose phase space may be depicted on a screen or blackboard, then proceeding to ever higher dimensions in Gibbsean phase space.

Print publication: Issue 2 (March 2005)
Received 8 October 2004, in final form 1 November 2004
Published 11 January 2005