Book Description

This book first teaches learners how to do quantum mechanics, and then provides them with a more insightful discussion of what it means. Fundamental principles are covered, quantum theory presented, and special techniques developed for attacking realistic problems. The book's two-part coverage organizes topics under basic theory, and assembles an arsenal of approximation schemes with illustrative applications. For physicists and engineers.

Customer Reviews (94)

Good introductory text
This book will take you through the core topics on quantum mechanics. The text is well explained and easy to follow, the problems are doable. Be prepared for the maths though. Before reading this book I suggest to do groundwork on engineering maths comprising functions of a complex variable, series solutions of differential equations, probability theory and linear algebra. There is one thing I can't get from books on quantum mechanics including this one: an elucidation on the development of the Schrodinger's equation.

A really overrated book
This book is a fair book into the Quantum Theory. Just that, fair. Griffiths does a nice job in the first chapter of laying the foundation of the rest of the book. But in later chapters, he tends to assume to much and fails to provide a deeper mathematical inforamtion and tends to assume that the reader knows where he is going.

Tip to the buyer of this product: If you want a full understanding buy another Quantum book and use them side by side. This way you can get the most out of the course/personal pleasure.

When You're Ready for the Math, This is the Book
David Griffiths' Introduction to Elementary Particles is probably the best book on the topic and, absurd though it may seem, the same seems to be true for his Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.While I would recommend Jim Baggott's books on the topic as a better *Introduction* for someone who, like me, has a math education far in the past, Griffiths' book come afterward.

Above and beyond the clarity of presentation there is the engaging tone of Griffiths' writing.His books are for physics what Charles Petzold's books are for programming in Windows; I can read page after page and stay alert.This is more important than you might think especially for an autodidact who has to keep himself motivated,

Emphasis on problems
How does Griffiths manage to cram such a comprehensive exploration of non-relativistic QM into such a small textbook? Nearly half of the material is explained only through doing the chapter problems. If you are a self-learner or looking for a reference, take a look at other texts such as Liboff before this one. If you are using this as part of an undergraduate class, get ready for some serious problem sets.

Fantastic First Book
The best introduction to quantum mechanics around, without doubt.Griffiths knows how to drive home the key concepts.Insufficient for a graduate student, but a highly desirable supplement to Shankar/Cohen-Tannoudji because Griffiths reminds you what is and what is not important concisely.There is no question that this book is brilliantly written.The smartest people are those who understand how to say things concisely and to the point, not pretentious people who hide behind equations and jargon because they cannot communicate ideas.Griffiths is obviously a very smart man.

This is written as a graduate physicist.

People who say that this book is insufficiently rigorous tend to be (but not necessarily) intellectual snobs who want to impress themselves and others by saying "Oh, Griffiths is too low level for me, I'm so great..."This is an INTRODUCTION, and that's what it serves to do...science was created by men based on intuition and logical clues, not by the gods of math (and I'd argue most of what is key in math came from mathematical clues and intuition before the proofs and notation...before derivatives and integrals were well defined, people were using them to solve physical problems). ... Read more

Book Description

As Kenneth W. Ford shows us in The Quantum World, the laws governing the very small and the very swift defy common sense and stretch our minds to the limit. Drawing on a deep familiarity with the discoveries of the twentieth century, Ford gives an appealing account of quantum physics that will help the serious reader make sense of a science that, for all its successes, remains mysterious. In order to make the book even more suitable for classroom use, the author, assisted by Diane Goldstein, has included a new section of Quantum Questions at the back of the book. A separate answer manual to these 300+ questions is available; visit The Quantum World website for ordering information.

There is also a cloth edition of this book, which does not include the "Quantum Questions" included in this paperback edition.

Customer Reviews (20)

Review By a Non-Physicist
Three themes are intertwined throughout this book:

1. Historical and biographical data on the men who, over about 50 years, discovered and described the weird world of quantum phenomenon and particle physics.The use of common sense had to be suspended during these investigations.

2. Accurate and intimidating descriptions of the particles and their interactions.I think it was Richard Feynman who said something like, "If I want to know the particulars about one of these particles, I know where to look it up."

3. Running commentary on how the quantum world works.

Of the three, the first is well-done and interesting, the second is relentless but necessary (for the career physicist), and the third is simply brilliant.It explains in clear language why the quantum world is so unlike the common sense world we thought we lived in.Difficult concepts come alive - such as wave/particle duality, the exclusion principle, the uncertainly principle, symmetry, and entanglement, or as Einstein called it, "spooky action at a distance."Unless you live like a Mennonite or are on a boy scout campout, quantum physics technologies effect the way you live your daily life - the internet even grew out of early efforts of physicists to keep each other more immediately informed about advances in particle physics.For non-physics majors, consider reading on despite lack of total understanding or you might bog down in details.As the point of view changes, concepts are restated and you'll get another try at it.This stuff is weird!

This is a great book that I highly recommend for any physicist who wants to brush up on particle physics and quantum phenomena, any undergrad or grad student in physics, or any other scientist types who are persistent enough to really want a handle on this fascinating but difficult subject.

A Good Book for Non-scientists
I found this book to be very interesting. The only minor drawback is the intense focus on the many kinds of sub-atomic particles (Hadrons, Fermions, Leptons, Pions, W particles, etc.), but I really liked the way the information was presented. A good book for the non-scientist. Makes the completely complicated quantum theory quasi-understandable, if not fathomable. I think it was Neils Bohr you said that something like "anybody who claims to understand quantum mechanics really doesn't", as it is weird science based on probabilities. Not many equations in the book; a few in the footnotes.

A good introduction to Quantum Physics
This is a good and readable introduction to Quantum Mechanics with a good collection of questions at the end that will be handy for educators (an answer manual is available to them).The quantum world is so far away from our daily experience that it should not surprise us that the concepts we use in classical physics such as defined trajectories, particles, waves, exact position, etc. get blurred in the quantum world. However, there are fascinating experiments, the best known is the double slit experiment, that show us the weirdness of the quantum, epitomized in the famous Wheeler's question: "How come the quantum?".

The quantum world is fundamentally probabilistic. For example, you do not who whether a specific atom of a radioactive substance will disintegrate in the next second, the only thing you can know is the probability that it will decay.

The book also traces the history of the main discoveries in particle physics and has a good number of photos of the main characters.

To conclude: anybody not familiar with QM and who wants to acquire a minimum scientific culture about one of the two main revolutions in physics of the XXth century (and the one that has had the widest impact in our modern economy) needs to read this book.

I particularly enjoyed the explanation of alpha and beta radioactivity and the discussion on CP violation, "the reason we are here", according to Nobel Prize winner Val Fitch. On the other hand, I missed some clarifications that will confuse the lay reader: why neutrinos are not their own antiparticles or how come there are 8 gluons if there are nine pairs of colour/anticolour.On the other hand, the important Uncertainty Principle is only discussed on page 213, whereas it is mentioned several times before in the book.

Very accessible, but all over the place
Emit one photon at a certain point, then detect it at another point.In between, that one photon has traveled EVERY POSSIBLE PATHWAY between the two points.The location where you detect it is determined by probability, not certainty.

This book blew my mind, as I had left physics behind over a decade prior.It was very accessible, but disjointed.I suppose it is difficult to compose a flowing narrative about a subject that no one truly understands.Credit Ford for helping us learn, even if we have to keep flipping back and forth to remind ourselves what leptons and bosons and fermions are.

Great theory book
This book an exellent introduction to Quamtum physics but it also talks about the history of quantum mechanics, which is quiet interresting and makes it easier to read.

I was look for an introduction to the Quantum World and this was the one. Sadly, I'm the kind of person who forget what I just read. This book is filled with theory (i.e. all sorts of leptons, quarks, force carriers, etc.) and consequently, really hard to remember.

Im in High School now and I was just curious about Quantum mechanics. I just had some really BASIC knowledge in QM and this book explained me all the rest easily althrought some explanations were incomplete like for the Weak interraction: it just says it is carried by the W and Z particle. The book does say what "carried" means (that is, force carrier) but it doesn't say actually how's it works.

Overall, this book explained a lot of things about QM but it demands the reader to remember a lot of things, especially the particles, their charge and their family (leptons, bosons, fermions, etc.).

This book CAN'T be read like a novel because you have to remember a lot of things but it's still easier to read than a book about relativity or math because it contains only few equations and doesn't ask you to "think" exept for the part when you have to know particles decay and their charge.

You must at least have some basic knowledge about Quantum Mechanics OR simply about physics before reading this. If you're interresed about QM and don't want to have all the complicated sutff (this book doesn't even say the value of Plank's constant), I deeply recommand this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (13)

The best Quantum Mechanics book that has ever been written. For serious people only
The best Quantum Mechanics book that has ever been written. For serious people only. I, as a university physics lecturer of 22 years of experience,very very strongly recommend this book to every serious student. But, these two volume books must be studied with an endless patience. My way of studying it is: two pages a day. Therefore, you can complete them in two years time. By the way, if someone owns a solutions manual these two volume QM books, please notify me at nyildiz@cumhuriyet.edu.tr.

Excellent Reference Book
Although the presentation of the material still assumes a knowledge of classical mechanics and magnetism (an approach that has since been abandoned in quantum mechanics texts), the book is remarkably self-contained (the exercises, however, are not).The exposition is very clear, and the early part of the book uses a historical framework while the remainder covers the usual material in the usual way.

I would not suggest using the book as a main text for learning quantum mechanics, but I've used it several times as a reference book (and a very affordable one at that).You could think of it as a poor man's Cohen-Tannoudji.

Great Buy-review by author of Quantum Mechanics Demystified
With the high price of textbooks these days this little gem is a fantastic buy. The book is thick-think of getting both volumes of Cohen-Tannoudji wrapped into one. It begins with the standard review of "old" quantum theory, carefully explaining the photoelectric effect and all that. The presentation is nice, detailed, and physically insightful. It also includes things like the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rules that might get left behind in modern treatments. After this he has an excellent chapter on "matter waves and the Schrodinger equation", with an excellent discussion of wave packets and quanitzation of atomic energy levels. I found this chapter alone made purchasing the book worthwhile. The rest of the book goes into the formal development of quantum theory and studies central potentials, scattering, the harmonic oscillator, angular momentum and all that. At $19 bucks you can't go wrong buying this book.

messiah the messiah
This book seems an effort for including in two volumes a wide vision of quantum relativistic and non relativistic theory. The result is erratic. In the first chapters, messiah accumulate an enormous quantity of material: The old ondulatory mechanics is remixed with some formal modern approach, poorly logical matched, provoke a great confusion. The chapter dedicated to central potentials and scattering contains a lot of formulas not deduced in the text, and the reader is compelled to the appendixes that are very disordered. There is no logical ordering in this part of the book too. The chapter dedicated to angular momentum is in some extent influenced by the nuclear physics orientation of the whole book, and offers some very difficult problems next to easy ones. Symmetries are very formally treated, and the author offers some mathematic instruments poorly explained. The effort along the book to maintain a rigurous dirac notation make it entagled, and the case of the perturbation theory is really hard to understand for this reason. The best chaters of the book are those contained inthe last part(relativistic quantum mechanics), and the introduction to the quantized field theory, thus the whole valoration of the book can not be very good.

A Good Thorough Book
The book is thorough and covers all the topics in Quantum mechanics.The chapters follow just the way Q.M developed over the years.The reader would find it even more interesting if he/she has some background in Classical Mechanics because Messiah often refers to Hamilton-Jacobi equation, Action and Hamiltonian in general.

The book also develops Bra-Ket algebra in a very easy way, something I have not seen any other book.Messiah's way of treating scattering problems is quite different from that of the others. He doesn't make use of Green's Function but uses the wave-packet approach.

This books gets 3 stars because it's quite verbose. Messiah often gets stuck in explaining things over and over again(therefore the size of the book!). The drawback is that there are few problems per chapter and are quite difficult. This does not help the student gain confidence in the subject. The book assumes you are familiar with Electrodynamics. ... Read more

Book Description

This powerful study guide makes sometimes-daunting material accessible. More than 240 problems solved step-by-step help students gain a firm grasp of proper methods and a solid foundation for further study. All the essentials of this basic course are covered clearly and concisely, cutting study time and making important points memorable. The next-best thing to a private tutor, this study guide helps boost grades and proves ideal for professionals, too, who wish to study solo to master this discipline.

Customer Reviews (17)

Schaum's Outline of Quantum Mechanics
Basic information, and lots of problems (many worked out, others with answers). Makes for good practice and review.

Very useful, needs a rewrite ...
This book is useful. There is a variety of problems from fairly easy to difficult, but in general, the problems are similar (and often the same) as problems in graduate texts such as Merzbacher, Cohen, etc.. My complaint with this book is not necessarily the typos (although they should be fixed given the popularity of this book). My complaint is that that the authors sometimes skip steps in the solutions that are so critical, that is is nearly impossible to understand them. A useful solution can leave out mathematical drudgery, and calculations, but it shouldn't leave out critical steps that have been covered earlier in the book, because a solutions manual like this is not usually used as a textbook, it is used as a reference.

For instance I may want to try a practice problem on the Variational Method, and the problem leaves out steps that may have been covered in earlier chapters. So I spend hours playing with the problem until I find the solution. This is not useful, and not what a problems and solutions book should do. I understand that not every step can be included, but I would rather see more complete solutions, which might sacrifice the unsolved problems and the blank pages at the end of the book.

This book seems to have been typewritten from the authors' handwritten notes, because many of the typos are consistent with penmanship. But one of the authors should go over all of the solutions, flesh out the missing steps, and correct the errors. Without doing this, the physics student can't rely on this book as a trusted source, since they never know if the error they encounter is a typo or their own mistake.

Regardless, this is a useful book, and I have learned a lot from it.

Best value for money
This book is a complete introductory course that presents the basic concepts of Quantum Mechanics.

As a newcomer to this subject, I was puzzled by the separate definitions of the similar notions of inner product (denoted < , >), scalar product (denoted ( , )), scalar product (denoted < | >) and Dirac bracket (also denoted < | >). It would be most helpful if, in a future edition, the authors could define these four notions in one place, along with an explanation of the differences (if any) between them.

Apart from this minor annoyance, for which I deducted one star, this book succesfully tackles a most important and difficult subject. The writing and presentation are up to the usually high standards of Schaum's Outline series. There are plenty of exercises, both solved and unsolved. And it's excellent value for money. For the price, there's no serious competition.

A better mathematical treatment, based on linear vector spaces, may be found in "Principles of Quantum Mechanics" by Shankar.

Excelente libro de texto sobre Física Cuántica.
La mayoría de los textos de Física Cuántica que he leído, son inabordables en algunos momentos por la complejidad de la misma notación, falta de ejemplos directos de aplicación, y deficientes estructuraciones del contenido. El resultado es que finalmente te ves rodeado de una gran cantidad de libros de texto, para cubrir diferentes capítulos.

En cambio este libro, sobresale con holgura, cubriendo todas esas carencias.

* La estructura del libro es correcta.
* El número de ejemplos es muy amplio (como si no en un Schaum's).
* La notación es la que normalmente se utiliza en este campo.

¡ Qué más se puede pedir, en un libro de texto !.

Carlos Ortega
2006-01-30

Not great
I bought this book as I was taking undergraduate-level Quantum Mechanics.While it has a better review and analysis of bra and ket notation than, say, the Griffiths text, and has excellent applications (square well, energy levels, Landau Levels, etc.), it was practically useless until I finished the course.Additionally, as others have pointed out, the outline is riddled with errors.It is not as well-written as Murray Spiegel's Vector Analysis or Fourier Series books.If you're a graduate student or want a refresher course, I'd consider it. Otherwise, this is not the ideal choice. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A great book for the beginner
I have quite a few books on Quantum Mechanics. This book does what the others do not. The first half is about simple math. Understanding that QP - PQ = ih/2pi is the matrix form of an equation and the QP - PQ is not zero because the matrices do not commute is critical. This is basic stuff that a lot of books just skip. The second half uses the math to explain some of the features of Quantum Mechanics. For me I needed the detailed first half even though the math was not too hard. Now I can read my other books with a new understanding and finally I am starting to understand Quantum Mechanics.

Quantum Disaster
I bought this book hoping it would simplfy Quantum Mechanics; it starts out simple with some good stories; but I learned one thing from Griffiths book at least philosophically, you can't get around the math. I like the style of the book but it gets shady around Chapter 10 about 1/2 way through the book, and he loses his focus. In order to do Quantum Physics, one must gradually learn vectors, Calculus and its assorted tricks, and to think outside the box abstractly; and you can't simplify that!

Jordan half-strikes again
This is very good as far as it goes but large chunks of important quantum theory have been deliberately omitted thus devaluing the book's ultimate usefulness. It is not up to the standard I expected from the author's book on Linear Operators

An Interesting Viewpoint
This is more of a philosophical or logical (axiomatic) approach to QM from minimal principles.It's not too practical but is enlightening.

super duper
i will not add any thing newer compared to the other reviewers.
but i felt that i should vote for that book.
very clear introduction for the subject, specially for the new comers.
highly recommended.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

good book
This is a good book for anyone trying to teach yourself quantum mechanics, and it is a good supplement to any quantum mechanics class.The author talked about hopefully making a 2nd book on this topic to add to this book (not a 2nd edition, but another book) because this one does lack some of the more complicated topics in quantum mechanics.

Good book but has quite a few typos...
Alright...first of all. NO there is not too much math in this book. Quantum Mechanics is basically all math. Books that don't use math are usually worthless if you want to learn QM.

BUTTTTT....i reccomend everyoen go buy this book to have as a ref. It has quite a few typos..Dont worry, you'll catch them (they're retarded)..But more importantly, the author explains things much better than alot of Quantum books do...

Get it but be weary of the math. You'll see the errors when you start working the problems.

-Brit

Too many typos
This would have been a good QM book if it weren't for all the typos. Quite honestly, I have never ever seen a legitimately published book with this many typos. The General Relativity book is much better in this regard, but it feels as if *this* book is being sold as an author's first draft, with no editing or reviewing having occurred. For this reason, I will proabably not buy the 2nd QM volume if there is one. While the presence of so many typos does test your understanding, it is very annoying, and getting more annoying with every passing page. And it seems to be impossible to find the promised errata for all the typos. And now that the quantity of typos seems to be increasing, it strikes me that it would take too long and be too much trouble to annotate them all, assuming that I could find the errata in the first place. The idea behind this book is a good one, and I would give it more stars if I didn't feel as if the author had rushed this book into publication before its time. Extremely annoying!

Sufficient Book
Early explanations are adequate but no so perfect, good guide to learn the basics of QM.

Too bad about all the errors
The aforementioned errors are amazing - I wonder if the author/editor put them in there to force the reader to examine the text more closely.

In some cases, methods are used before they are explained which is annoying. At other times, material is presented without any rationale as to the meaning behind it. I have always wondered where Schrodinger's equation came from and this book doesn't really answer that.

All that said, I have really enjoyed this book and wish there were more books like it. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews from the First Edition:

Customer Reviews (52)

Shankar lacks empathy
A 2 because one of the first lines state "this book is selfcontained for someone with no knowledge of the subject and blah blah blah it should be readable and easy" this book is mightly confusing and rather boring. Shankar's style is akin to trying to give someone directions in a totally strange land to a unknown place by waving their hands in the air and telling you which way to go. This type of thing may be fine if you're speaking to someone who knows the land--a professor of the subject maybe, but is flirting with confussion for a student. A 2 simpling because this might be a great book--once you know the subject.

Excellent learning experience
This work ranks with the writings of Plutarch for me.Nowhere else have I felt such richness of self and other in a process of sharing awareness.Reading the book I felt that I matter and my comprehension matters.The Bhagavad Gita came to mind [it's great to have a knowing charioteer] and the Tao Te Ching [''Water benefits all things and does not compete with them.'' [Lin Yutang, trans.]].I was delighted to discover in the Table of Contents ''Dotting Your i's and Crossing Your h-bar's'' and ''Born Again'' and I found that the book as a whole has a wonderful seasoning of such allusions.The book also read like a straight-from-the-shoulder treatment of Quantum Mechanics without insulting simplifications right up to a level of complexity the author chose to cover and clearly identified.

My greatest burdens in learning have been discovering which things I was taught wrong and ''unlearning'' them, so I feel it is very important to avoid misleading text.I find this book quite free of such problems with an exception on Page 515 that proves the rule.It stands out because it is so unusual in this work.On Page 515 The sentence ''This constant energy Eo has no physical consequences.''is misleading as worded, for it is not obvious that only the magnitude and uniformity of the sum of zero point field [ZPF] energies are included.The Casimir effect is explained as a physical consequence of the ZPF energy, for example.The sentence seems to need it's own text section.Perhaps:''This constant energy Eo has no physical consequences, but zero point energies do appear in advanced theories.'' would clear up the issue.

Shankar's final paragraph on Page 124 rings true for me and speaks directly to what I would call undue mystification in Quantum Mechanics.His treatment of this complex philosophical issue is excellent.After clearly presenting the process and result of measurement, he notes that a system has a well-defined state vector before and after measurement, although the results of our measurements are all we know.It seems that he leans toward the Einstein view in the Bohr-Einstein debate, as do I, company I find comfortable.My intuition demands that the world exist, even if I may only see it ''through a glass, darkly.''

Shankar's use of Dirac's bra-ket notation has been very beneficial for me, and he explained many mysteries that arose and were only tentatively resolved while reading books on Quantum Electrodynamics and Superstring Theory.Since I feel that any subject may be comprehended if one is willing to be bewildered for a few thousand pages, and since I basically do not trust any current expression of nature to be fully valid, my style has been to read good books until the sense of nature comes through the expression of what we can say about it [where nature = natural process, not Nature].I do poorly at learning material without this sense of nature in it, and I am frustrated by the valuable reality of mathematical physics, that it consists of what little of nature will fit into our mathematics.Against this background I found Shankar's work a rich and enlightening experience.

Does the job... but could be better
This book covers all the important material, and is not unintelligible, but anyone who really wants to learn quantum mechanics would benefit from using Griffiths Introduction to Quantum Mechanics (2nd Edition) .

Good Author, Poor typist
I have been through the first few chapters of the book. Although the material presented is very accessible and the questions are doable and related to the section they conclude. I am extremely surprised how poor is the typesetting used in producing the book. The identification used to mark important points is simply by italicizing them. This was barely useful for a book that uses a small size font. It gets even worse when you try to look for an exercise as you have to spend some time skimming line after line through the whole section till you find the exercise! It might take a few minutes!

Not great for first time QM students
I am taking a class that reviews QM but unfortunately I never took QM as an undergrad.So this book isn't very good if you are trying to get a comprehensive overview of QM.It seemed to have a lot of derivations and information though so if you are looking for a more in depth course this will probably help. ... Read more

Book Description

The more science tells us about the world, the stranger it looks. Ever since physics first penetrated the atom, early in this century, what it found there has stood as a radical and unanswered challenge to many of our most cherished conceptions of nature. It has literally been called into question since then whether or not there are always objective matters of fact about the whereabouts of subatomic particles, or about the locations of tables and chairs, or even about the very contents of our thoughts. A new kind of uncertainty has become a principle of science.

This book is an original and provocative investigation of that challenge, as well as a novel attempt at writing about science in a style that is simultaneously elementary and deep. It is a lucid and self-contained introduction to the foundations of quantum mechanics, accessible to anyone with a high school mathematics education, and at the same time a rigorous discussion of the most important recent advances in our understanding of that subject, some of which are due to the author himself.

Customer Reviews (21)

This is an elegant piece of work.
This really is a wonderful book, directed at the interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Albert's elucidation of the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics is not only the essence of simplicity, but also accurate.A most unusual combination!

Albert then examines the consequences of that formalism for non-locality, the EPR experiment, Bell's inequality, the problem of measurement and the collapse of the wave function in a laid-back but precise presentation.Some other reviews have criticized the prose, but I found the writing to be friendly, modest and (and here's the punchline) understandable.

This is an elegant piece of work.

Cult film? Spare me.
What the Bleep is NOT "cult" film, and I wonder if the person who used that term even knows what it means or watched the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know".

Succinctly, "What the Bleep" is the greatest film ever made. The fact that Albert disagrees with the filmakers detracts from, and does not add to, his credibility.

Anything that finally attempts to unravel the fabric of deceit and brainwashing that western organized religion has propogated onto the populace is a refreshing addition to our culture and should be required viewing for the entire race.

Also, to the reviewer who mocked JZ Knight and Ramtha: JZ and Ramtha are the real thing. The channeling has been put through an endless battery of scientific tests in an attempt to debunk the phenomenon and the results proved just the opposite:what JZ is doing is real and cannot be explained away as hoax.While channelling, Ramtha/JZ's brainwaves are in DELTA WHILE SHE IS CONSCIOUS - which is scientifically impossible for a human being to do. No other human being has ever accomplished this, and the scientists were forced to conclude that Ramtha "is a non-local phenomenon".

Anyone who viewed "What the Bleep" with skepticism or disdain is obviously one of the many who have been brainwashed by western religion to the point of being so closed minded that they cannot even recognize enlightenment and true knowledge when they see it. It is not "occult" - it is TRUTH backed by science and quantum mechanics. Period.

Jonathan Meadows

Horrible Writing
This book is so horrifically flawed on so many levels.First, there is the erroneous uncritical thinking involved in dealing with the measurement problem, which despite David's attempt to address, is completely evaded via a multi-layered philosophical detours of an almost paramastabatory nature.Second, on a technical writing level, David is completely unable to formulate one complete, coherent, and logically cohesive sentence.His writing style is to riddled with repeated mistakes in basic grammar that it is genuinely embarrassing to read.

I would greatly encourage those interested in real science to read The Fabric of the Cosmos or The Elegant Universe.

-B. Greene

Professor David Albert does not promote the occult
A previous reviewer expressed her dismay that Professor Albert has appeared in a "cult promotional video" called "What the Bleep Do We Know". I recommend that those concerned or interested by this claim do a search in the Wikipedia for the title of the film, and then search within that page for the phrase "David Albert". Within the paragraph containing his name is a link to an article in the on-line edition of Popular Science Magazine which explains that Prof. Albert does *NOT* and did *NOT* support the views of the filmmakers:the statements he made in his interview for the film were edited and cut such that he appears to support their ideas, when he actually considers them to be nonsense.

I have read this wonderful book by Prof. Albert. I give it four stars instead of five because of the writing style:while said style is occasionally refreshing, it can sometimes be a hindrance to the reader's understanding of the ideas presented by the good professor.

Prof. Albert uses a combination of intuitive and interesting thought experiments, coupled with a conceptual abstraction from the QM math, to engage the reader in a profound exploration of the *consequences* of the quantum reality that seems to encompass the microscopic world (and indeed the universe as a whole).

Beaware: Dr. Albert Appears on Cult Promotional Videos

This author appears on the cult promotional video What the Bleep, which was produced by the Ramtha people who believe that a woman is channeling a 35,000 year old cromagnon warrior.

Alberts appears on the film, emphatically waving his hands and talking about physics, which seemed to suggest that somehow our thoughts can influence external reality and its outcome.

How can you trust a man that then appears on such a cult film?

Maybe Alberts was duped and his sayings were taken out of context.But then this speaks of a vainglorious man that was more concerned for getting his image and notions "out there" and seemingly not particular who was doing it or not checking what the film was really about.It would not be surprisig then how such a man can get fooled and have that vanity used against him.

Either way, be careful, as this man seems too zanny to really know what he is talking about and plus his writing style in the book looks like some retarded monkey on crack was sitting in front of the typewritter.

... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (8)

Good intro to quantum
This book takes you step by step into quantum mechanics concepts.You might need to buy another book to flesh out the details but this one really helps to get the basic concepts across.

A guide for the principle tenets
"Primer of Quantum Mechanics" by Marvin Chester allows the reader to
organize his thinking and basic knowledge of Quantum Mechanics. It does
assume a fair amount of mathematics: matrices, calculus and vectors. It
also focuses on the content and foundations of the science and so will be
useful to those just wanting an overview. It tends to be somewhat dated but as a basic guide it does not suffer.

The author has an original way with words
The author has an original way with words that makes for interesting reading. Many paragraph headings make memorable slogans, such as "WHAT YOU MEASURE IS WHAT YOU KNOW".

But in order to understand this book you must come to terms with the author's own terminology; for instance he regularly uses the word "language" to mean a mathematical "basis".

Dirac notation is used liberally, and the Dirac bracket is explained in words in several different ways; but nowhere is it defined in mathematical terms, as the inner product (scalar product) of two vectors. This seems surprising in view of the author's statment that "The entire business of practical quantum mechanics is devoted to obtaining transformation matrices!". The elements of transformation matrices are Dirac brackets, but this book shows how in many cases they can be evaluated without knowing their mathematical definition.

This book has a strongly practical approach, with emphasis on the physical apparatus used to make physical measurements.

Gem of a book!
What a wonderful gem of a book this is!It is written with grace and eloquence and yes with a bit of passion for the subject as well!It probably cannot be used as a stand alone textbook since it lacks the rigour and depth of standard textbooks.However, it isa perfect adjunct to any QM class.The book uses the Dirac notation from the beginning, much like the books by Townsend, Shankar and Sakurai (a couple of these are graduate level books). As such it will not follow the typical undergraduate's class experience if books such as Griffins are used.As with most books the problems are an integral part of the book and of your education.For the most part these are not untractable and hints and solutions are given for some.
If you are planning on taking QM in the fall then you have enough mathematics to tackle this on your own (perhaps the summer prior to the first QM class).And if one puts the effort much can be gained from this little book.Also, since Dover is the publisher the price is not unreasonable.

Primer of Quantum Mechanics
A good and relatively easy introduction to Dirac notation for quantum mechanics. Very suitable for self study--I have worked through all of it, including all the problems. Most of the problems are an integral part of the text, but there are solutions to many and hints for many of the others. Should be suitable also for an undergraduate text in quantum mechanics. As an example of his method, Chester treats EPR in a general and apparently original manner, i.e. he uses neither the formulation in the EPR paper nor Bohm's--in most treatments the latter is most common (and certainly easiest to apply to experimental tests). I found the chapter on indistinguishable particles particularly helpful.Using simple examples, the author provides a clear introduction to the topic. Somewhat weak in the area of matrix mechanics; using Dirac notation in that section seems forced. There is a number of typographical errors, which are not serious however. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A novel, clear and modern exposition of quantum mechanics for advanced undergraduate and graduate studies
This new book is a beautiful exposition of quantum mechanics from a somewhat unfamiliar orientation - the time dependent perspective. The use of wave-packets and their time evolution fits in very naturally (but not completely!) with classical intuition. This makes the quantum aspects of the system much more explicit and clear. Also, it is a more modern perspective for studying time-varying Hamiltonian (and even non-Hamiltonian) systems.

However, the standard eigenvalue perspective is not fully abandoned. It is taught in parallel to the time dynamics, augmenting and enhancing understanding of various examples throughout.

The book also contains some unique and highly accessible and intuitive overviews, hard to find anywhere else at this level. Specifically, Wigner and correlation functions are introduced in a very compelling manner. Also, scattering is taught both in the standard beaten track of scattering eigenstates, but also with the more modern and computationally useful Moller operator formalism. The numerical methods chapter is a gem, suitable for a modern course on quantum mechanics, which naturally includes computer simulations of quantum dynamics.

The book fills in a long overlooked void connecting advanced undergraduates with graduate studies. More specialized topics such as solid-state physics, field theory and many-particle systems are hinted at, but correctly left open for more specialized and advanced texts.

The Applications are geared towards chemical physics, working mainly on molecular-photon interactions with ultra-short pulses. These sections nicely summarize a very broad field, and bring the reader up-to-date with some exciting and modern results. This is especially enjoyable when compared to standard textbooks on quantum mechanics, which usually bring the student up-to-date with the early fifties of the previous century...

The book contains a very nice assortment of exercises, which if gone through carefully, give confidence and a sense of understanding. Also, the extensive reference list is an added special feature.

I studied with this book, and have been using the methods in it ever since, to good effect. I recommend it without reservation.

Quantum Dynamics explained in an accessible, well written, readable book
The first part of Tannor's book presents a clear and easily accessible first pass at the basics of quantum dynamics. It takes the generic "wave packet" chapter, common to many traditional quantum physics texts, and expands it into a highly effective tool for building quantum intuition about nuclear dynamics in molecules, motivating fundamental theorems and important mathematical concepts and techniques. Part two develops the theory behind various approximate methods for treating quantum dynamics, and part three gives some excellent applications providing, for example, a well developed and approachable theoretical framework of modern pulsed laser nonlinear spectroscopy methods, and an especially nice chapter on control of chemical reactions by femtosecond pulse sequences, just to mention a couple of examples from the broad scope of applications given. The text is ideal for students of Chemistry, Physics, and engineering, accessible and challenging to both experimental and theory students alike. It is clearly written, with lots of interesting exercises. At Boston University we offer three semesters of graduate quantum mechanics: First, a semester of traditional quantum chemistry, the basics and an introduction to ab initio electronic structure methods. Next a semester introducing quantum dynamics based on Tannor's book, and finally a semester which applies these ideas to molecular spectroscopies, focusing on femtosecond nonlinear methods. Tannor's book serves as the intellectual bridge between these courses, and does so admirably. Over recent years I have taught our Quantum II class with three different drafts of the text and watched it evolve and expand into the concise, well written text that has now been published. It is a pleasure to teach from and a wonderfully clear book to read. The students in these recent classes have been very vocal with their praise for Tannor's book.

A second course in quantum mechanics
The idea behind David Tannor's book is simple - instead of going the traditional route, in which one solves the eigenvalue problem of some hamiltonian and call it a day, Tannor chooses to examine the time evolution of simple quantum systems. He deals with scattering of wavepackets, bound particles (e.g. particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, etc ... ) and illustrates the features of quantum theory through such examples. It makes you wonder why no other book does the same - after all, the really interesting part of QM is quantum dynamics, isn't it? For example: the fact that the eigenfunction of an infinite well is a sine function is all very nice, but how do particles actually behave in such a well? And so forth.
I recommend this book for anyone who has already had a first course in QM the "traditional way" and now wants to learn how exactly quantum systems behave in a time dependent way. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

One of the Very Best
This is one of the most lucid accounts of a subject famous for its obscurity.

Hughes is one of a precious few who has one foot firmly planted in the science and the other in the broader philosophical tradition.

His text, a contemporary classic, sits comfortably on the shelf in the company of Jammer, Cushing, Shimony and D'Espangnat. Everyone from beginners to seasoned professionals can profit from this work. I heartily recommend it to anyone keen to understand the foundations of quantum theory -- a timely subject, now stirring to life after 60 years of slumber.

In depth analysis
This book provides an excellent analysis of relevant and interesting points raised by quantum physics in philosophy as well as detailed and useful explanations of the physics itself - something many books cannot do.The explanation of the physics, the experiments and their results provide material to think on.Simple, arbitrary conclusions leave no room for thought - analysis of real life experiments provoke thought.

The math is not easy for an inexperienced student, though the subject in general tends to preclude those.I had just taken a class on matrix mechanics and I was so greatful I had, as it let me actually visualize the equations rather than simply read the letters and symbols.

An excellent launching pad for those who are already familiar with EPR, the slit experiment and quantum spin, etc. and want to know what it all means.

Good, but not great.
This book was recommended to me as a very nice introduction to quantum mechanics for the mathematically-inclined.It looks like I'll be awaiting the publication of the new edition of Sudbery's text instead, because, at least for me, this book didn't quite end up filling the bill.It's true that, unlike so many popular introductions to quantum theory, Hughes' book doesn't shy away from mathematics.The mathematics for me was fine (although I wonder what a person who'd had "only high school algebra" would make of the derivatives and integrals that show up unannounced).It's in trying to make sense of what the mathematics is supposed to be modelling that I felt that this book lost a star.(How much of the problem is due to the author's exposition and how much is due to my shortcomings as a reader is something I'm not prepared to judge.)

Again, this is a good book, but I have no idea where people are coming from when they write "this is not only the best book ever written, but also the best book that ever will be written".

Great book on quantum theory for the ambitious reader
This is a superb teaching book for taking your understanding of quantum mechanics to the next level. Much of the book is devoted to understanding a good deal of the underlying math and mathematical formalism, such as Hilbert spaces, Hermitians, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, Cantor's calculus of infinities, the analysis and representation of spin properties, and other very cool stuff which I didn't have a very good grasp of before. And yet the previous math required is minimal, really only high school algebra, and Hughes defines new concepts as he goes along. Actually, there is some calculus here and there, but not a whole lot, which is fine, as my advanced calculus is pretty rusty at this point. So Hughes keeps the advanced math to a minimum. This doesn't mean the book is easy reading, as the algebra of Hilbert spaces includes such things as the logical properties of inner products, spectral decomposition, vector projections, the analysis of different vector operators, and so on, and that's only one small section in the book, not to mention the fact that Cantor's ideas in number theory about the ordinality or sizes of inifinite series is pretty mind-boggling stuff. Basically, Cantor established the improbable and surprising fact that certain infinities are "bigger" than others. One way he did this was to show that some infinities are "countably infinite" and others are not. Fun stuff.

All this is just preparation for understanding the quantum mechanics, however, and the author does a fine job of linking the mathematical concepts with the applied ideas in quantum theory. This is important, since quantum mechanics is basically a purely mathematical theory. Unlike Einstein's Special and General theories of Relativity, which, although pretty mind-boggling theories in themselves, can still be explained by using more or less intuitive and easy to understand spatial concepts and illustrations. You've probably encountered these in some of the books on the subject, such as doing the fun thought experiment of having two observers, with one travelling at the speed of light and the other stationary, to demonstrate the relativistic effects on space, time, and matter in the case of the Special Theory. But unfortunately those kinds of entertaining and informative thought experiments are difficult to do in quantum mechanics, which is why a book like this that explains the concepts at a relatively high level clearly and concisely is such a great find. Overall, this is an excellent "upgrade" book written by a gifted teacher on a very difficult subject. There are very few books like this that bridge the gap between the purely popular presentations of quantum theory and the very difficult technical quantum physics books.

Please read this book
Before reading von Neumann or Akhiezer,go through this book first, PLEASE.It's not only a good introduction to QM, but also an interpretation or philosophy book.The contents are balanced and understandable for even a high-school student, which usually is not expected from a great thinker like Hughes.The book making is good as well -- cover design, editing, binding, etc.An interesting and decent treatment of quantum physics.Probability a must for any phys and math thinker.(I got the paperbound) ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A good introduction
One cannot do quantum mechanics without a thorough knowledge of the geometry of Hilbert space and the linear transformations on them. This book gives a good introduction to operators on Hilbert space, and could be read by a beginning graduate student of physics.

The theory of operators on Hilbert spaces could be viewed as a generalization of the theory of matrix transformations on finite-dimensional vector spaces. This viewpoint is readily apparent in chapter 1, wherein the author introduces Hilbert spaces as infinite-dimensional vector spaces (over the complex numbers) with an inner product. The author shows how to handle infinite sums of vectors, which requires the notion of convergence, and how to guarantee an infinite sequence of vectors converges to a limit vector that is also in the Hilbert space: the famous Cauchy sequences of vectors. The notion of a linear functional is also introduced, the author proving the one-to-one correspondence between continuous linear functionals and vectors, and connects this with the Dirac bra-ket notation.

Observables in quantum mechanics are represented by operators on (separable) Hilbert spaces, and these are studied in chapter 2. It is straightforward to define a linear operator in finite dimensions, but in infinite dimensions one needs the notion of a continuous linear operator. The author proves that a linear operator is continuous if and only if it is bounded. Unitary operators, so crucial to the calculation of probabilities in quantum theory, are introduced in this chapter also. In addition, the author studies projection operators, which are very important in the measurement process in quantum mechanics. lastly, the author discusses unbounded operators, which are ubiquitous in quantum theory, especially in the theory of angular momenta.

Obtaining measurement results in quantum theory corresponds to obtaining an eigenvalue of a Hermitian linear operator. Thus one must develop a notion of diagonalization (or "spectral resolution") of these operators, and this takes place in chapter 3. In infinite dimensions a Hermitian or unitary operator need not have any eigenvalues or eigenvectors, but the author shows how to obtain a spectral resolution using spectral families of projection operators. He proves that a self-adjoint operator is bounded if and only if its spectrum is bounded, and also Stone's theorem, which gives a representation of a unitary operator as an exponential of a unique self-adjoint operator. Such a representation is expected from the standpoint of how time evolution is characterized in quantum mechanics.

Things become more abstract in chapter 4, wherein the author studies operator algebras. The goal of the chapter is to find conditions under which the functions of a set of noncommuting operators include all bounded operators. This problem motivates the definition of a von Neumann algebra or W*-algebra, this definition depending on the important notion of a weak topology on a set of bounded operators. It is this topology that is the most relevant for the connection of quantum theory with laboratory measurements.

In chapter 5, the author makes clearer the concept of a state in quantum mechanics, this being done using the concept of a density matrix. States specify expectation values of bounded operators, and the author shows how to represent the expectation value of a bounded operator using a unique density matrix. Probabilities in quantum-mechanical calculations are then viewed as expectation values for projection operators, and the author uses Gleason's theorem to justify that projection operators are sufficient to determine the representation of a state. Having set up all this formalism, the author then derives the uncertainty principle for a quantity represented by a Hermitian operator. He then shows that real quantities which are simultaneously measurable with unlimited precision are represented by commuting Hermitian operators. lastly, the author addresses the implicit assumption that every bounded Hermitian operator can represent a measurable quantity. He gives an example of a system that cannot, this occurring because of 'superselection rules'. An operator that commutes with every Hermitian operator which represents a measurable quantity, but is not a multiple of the identity operator is then called a 'superselection operator'. He also discusses, but does not prove in detail, the representation of the expectation value of an element of a von Neumann algebra in terms of a density matrix. When a superselection rule is in place, the density matrix is not always unique. The author then shows how these facts enable one to view a von Neumann algebra alternatively as a collection of bounded operators that commute with all the projection operators.

States of course evolve in time, and so do observables. In chapter 6 the author derives the equations of motion both for the states and the observables. For the states this is the 'Schrodinger picture', and for the observables the 'Heisenberg picture'. Wigner's theorem on unitary and antiunitary operators is used to show that the time evolution of states is linear. The Heisenberg picture is illustrated by an example of a single particle. A more complicated situation though is when the classical system is not integrable, and is still the topic of intense research. The author also includes, atypically for books at this level, a discussion of what happens to the Schrodinger picture when superselection rules are included.
The mathematical tools used in this chapter are used in chapter 7 to study Galilean and Newtonian space-time transformations of states.

A good book with a mortal sin
This isa five stars book with a mortal sin.The book is a good introduction to functional analyses with quantum mechanics serving as motivation for definitions and theorems.It is very good for physics students that have already had a good course on quantum mechanics. Since it is intended to be a book to be used as described it is incomplete as a functional analysis book. Now the mortal sin: the author presents spectral theory using projection operators.This is fine. However to neglect the conection with the continuos spectrum will surely repel the intended audience. There are other books that do not do this and therefore are to be prefered.An old one is by Friedman( Lectures on applications oriented mathematics) . A new one is by Zeidler(Applied functional anlysis: applications to mathematical physics) ... Read more

Book Description

This classic text provides a comprehensive exposition of the concepts and techniques of quantum mechanics. The phenomena treated are sufficiently simple to allow the student to readily assess the validity of the models so that attention is not deflected from the heart of the subject. To that end, the book concentrates on systems that can either be solved exactly or be handled by well-controlled, plausible approximations. With few exceptions, this means systems with a small number of degrees of freedom. The exceptions are manyelectron atoms, the electromagnetic field and the Dirac equation. The inclusion of the last two topics reflects the belief that every physicist should now have some knowledge of these cornerstones of modern physics.

Customer Reviews (2)

Not for the uninitiated!!!
This is a high level, formal treatment of quantum mechanics. It is very elegant and there are many things in this book that are not covered in many other grad level quantum text books. For example, the nice treatment of the Kepler problem using F+, F- operators, a lengthy discussion of the interpration of QM/entangled states, etc, or a good treatment of the Landau levels in both symmetric and landau gauge. The emphasis on the ideas of the rotation group, Wigner-Eckhart, etc are also very nice. However, user beware, the textbook skips steps, sometimes lacks clarity, and may assume mathematics and quantum that you dont have yet. This is not a casual read. You should have a piece of paper in front of you to work through the steps. But I can assure you that in the end it is very worthwhile and gives you a glimpse into what makes quantum mechanics very beautiful and elegant.

If you have read Griffiths before this you may not be prepared. Try Shankar first then move onto this book.

Good advanced QM book .
This is a complete , modern QM book ...
Authors discuss issues which are usually missed in other QM textbooks .
Not for beginner ... This is rather 2nd or 3rd reading .... ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

Simple and light
Very simple and light book about foundations of quantum mechanics. No one should expect any enhancement of knowledge. It is interesting title from rather historical point of view.

Short and good
This book is really fun it contains a series of lectures given by Dirac, although it is really really short it is well worth its price because it gives you a good view in the problems of Quantum Mech of the time

not for beginners
If you have 5 books on Quantum mechanics already and are a big fan of Dirac, then this is O.K.
The book is a set of lectures that are not for beginners
( the audience was best and brightest professors at Yeshiva.)
I get the personal feeling that Paul Dirac should have read more Klein on group invariants,
more Weyl on gauge theory, and more Cartan on Lie Algebra theory,
but there is no doubt that he knew what he was talking about
and was the master of field quantization. Just not showing well here...

A must have
From the master himself: Paul Dirac. Very sharp, to-the-point and complete overview of the Quantum Theory. But from Dirac's point of view it's an interesting angle to review things.

Has been surpassed
My three star review is no criticism of Dirac - after all, he is the pioneer of the theory of Hamiltonians with constraints and as such deserves all the credit that is due. However I would like to redirect you to Henneaux and Teitelboim's book on quantization of gauge systems since they have done much to clarify the mathematics behind the theory and I think give a better introduction to the field than Dirac's dated book. ... Read more

Book Description
Quantum Mechanics -- Special Chapters is an important additional course for third-year students. Starting with the quantization of a free electromagnetic field and its interaction with matter, it discusses second quantization and interacting quantum fields. After re-normalization problems and a general treatment of nonrelativistic quantum field theory, these methods are applied to problems from solid-state physics and plasma physics: quantum gas, superfluidity, plasmons, and photons. The book concludes with an introduction to quantum statistics, the structure of atoms and molecules, and the Schrödinger wave equation formulated by Feynman path integrals. 72 fully and carefully worked examples and problems consolidate the material. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the best Textbooks onnon relativistic QM
I've read all the 3 Greiner's books concerning non relativistic QuantumMechanics (and other on QFT). First I've to underline that you may findmany text-errors in those books. (QM: an introduction, QM:Special Chapters,QM:Symmetries): for everybody who is a bit familiar with Mathematics thiscan not be a big problem. On the second hand, you have to read all the 3Greiner's books on Q.M. to have a great overview on this matter: everymathematical part is essential but complete. One has to follow andunderstand most of the calculations inside: this is the only way, generallyin Physics, to earn a good Mathematical level, and be able not toconcentrate too much on Mathematics while trying to understand the Physicsbehind. As last point I've to underline that only by reading Greiner's"Relativistic Quantum Mechanics" book, one is able to understandthe meaning of introducing Field Theory formalism in "Q.M.:SpecialChapters" and will appreciate it a lot: in fact everything is going tobe easier on the following matters; apart of this I think it's great totreat Statistical Mechanics with operators as soon as possible, as Greinerdoes in Q.M.:special chapters. Lot's of importance is given to symmetriesand Group theory (Q.M:symmetries) as a modern point of view pretends. ... Read more