How to teach statistical thermal physics in an introductory physics course

We report on several simulation programs (available through http://phys.snu.ac.kr/howto/ or http:// phya.snu.ac.kr/similar to kclee/howto/) which can be used to teach the statistical foundations of thermal physics in introductory college physics courses. These programs are simple applications of a technique for generating random configurations of many dice with a fixed total value. By merely simulating dice throwing we can demonstrate all the important principles of classical thermodynamics. (C) 2001 American Association of Physics Teachers.