Large systems reach equilibrium and ensemble properties (temperature, pressure, specific heat, ...) can be found statistically. This is essentially law of large numbers (central limit theorem). |
The resultant approach moves particles "randomly" asccording to some probability and NOT deterministically as in Newton's laws |
Many properties of particle systems can be calculated either by Monte Carlo or by Particle Dynamics. Monte Carlo is harder as cannot evolve particles independently. |
This can lead to (soluble!) difficulties in parallel algorithms as lack of independence implies that synchronization issues. |
Many quantum systems treated just like statistical physics as quantum theory built on probability densities |