Introduction to Quantum Mechanics Author: David J. Griffiths | Language: English | ISBN:
0131118927 | Format: PDF
Introduction to Quantum Mechanics 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.
- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall; 2nd edition (April 10, 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0131118927
- ISBN-13: 978-0131118928
- Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
I used this text book for my undergraduate quantum mechanics class. In that class, we covered basically everything in Griffiths. I have since gone on to graduate school. I have found myself very well prepared and I still use Griffiths as a reference because it explains basic ideas and basic problems better than most other text books. More importantly, it provided me with a good foundation for further study.
This text book is a great introductory text book. It is a text book for students for whom quantum mechanics is a new subject. It is not a text book for people who already know any significant amount of quantum mechanics, nor is it a great text to use for independent study (unless you work the problems and have some way of checking yourself.)
Shankar is too advanced for most students new to the subject. It's also too much material to cover in a standard two semester course where the material is completely new. The only school I know of which uses it is Yale, and they count on students having a stronger background than most students at most schools have. Moreover, I know from personal experience that teachers at Yale focus on getting students to calculate the right answer rather than developing a solid understanding of the ideas behind the physics.
It's also too much material to cover in a standard two semester course where the material is completely new. Griffiths is designed such that it can be used for the quantum mechanics classes at most universities -- ie, if students haven't had every other physics class before they use this book or if some of their background is a little weak, they aren't screwed.
I have read the first 4 chapters of the 1st Ed, and carefully looked at the 2nd. The book is an introduction to wave mechanics, starting with the Schrodinger Eq on the first page! It feels like he doesn't begin at the begining. He should at least give brief comments on the development of quantum ideas (both wave and matrix) and JUSTIFY why the wave approach is more suited as an introduction. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
All these jumps add up: when you try to work the problems you are working with wavefunctions like you've known them all your life! One could find this and that, but I was never sure how the results could be used (in an experimental setting for example). What system does this wavefunction represent, or at least approximate, give the reader some motivation for working on a problem for almost an hour.
I would also say the book is dull, because the author explains every single math step he takes. Sometimes it is helpful, but most of the time it kills the thrill. In places where things are harder to explain in details this approach is abandoned; in chapter 3 you'll find plenty of math rushed. In the 2nd Ed. the author breaks some of the more basic part of Ch. 3 into an appendix, but doesn't really improve on the writing. Apperantly it is believed that students of physics have never heard of seperation of variables but are at home with complex vector spaces. This is an unjustifiable approach. I bet if you take an average linear algebra course in US, you won't encounter: complex vector spaces, properties of hermitian matricies, not too much on diagonaliztion and change of basis. The 2nd Ed. does add 3-4 more examples in each chapter; that should save some problem solving time.
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