The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics [Hardcover]

Siegmund Brandt (Author), Hans D. Dahmen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0387943803 | ISBN-13: 978-0387943800 | Edition: 2nd ed. 1995. Corr. 4th printing

In studying classical mechanics, students are often helped by the fact that intuitions developed in everday life can give one a good idea of the behavior of the idealized objects dealt with in introductory courses. In addition, equations encountered are sufficiently simple to solve even in relatively complex situations that students can further develop their intution by solving problems. In learning quantum theory, however, intutions developed for the classical world fail, and the equations to be solved are sufficiently complex that they can readily be solved without a computer only for the simplest situations. This book represents an attempt to jump the hurdle to an intuitive understanding of wave mechanics by using illustrations profusely to present the time evolution and parameter dependence of wave functions in a wide variety of situations. Most of the illustrations are computer-generated solutions of the Schr dinger equation for one- and three-dimensional systems. The situations discussed range from the simple particle in a box through resonant scattering in one dimension to the hydrogen atom and Regge classification of resonant scattering. This edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded to include a discussion of spin and magnetic resonance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "Most serious students of physics and all of their teachers will want to consider having this orderly and graphic outline of introductory quantum theory at their fingertips." American Journal of Physics "This is a unique book." Nature --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 423 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 2nd ed. 1995. Corr. 4th printing edition (August 18, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387943803
• ISBN-13: 978-0387943800
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,128,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A ray of light, July 4, 2007

By 

Dr. C. A. Skilbeck - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics (Hardcover)

This book is totally excellent. This book sheds much light on quantum mechanics with its excellent graphical representations of the functions involved. The CD-ROM is also great. The companion book which introduces the computer software usd to generate many of these graphics is also great and brings a physics lab into your own room (well as far as is possible)! These books make the reader feel like a physicist rather than a recipient of some authour's bruised ego as the authour tries to confuse the reader by demonstrating 'mathematical prowess' by making their subject dull and unintelligible. This book is beautiful and inspiring and a must for anyone interested in quantum mechanics. The text contains a lot of detail, but the accompanying images make even the harder parts a joy to read. Since reading this book I have decided that a proper physics book is not simply a half-explained mathematical proof splattered on paper with accompanying problems that try to out-smart competing authours, but a good physics book is, like this one, about physics! Physics can be a very visual subject, so let's make it so! If more books were as well thought out as this one then we would have more first-class physicists!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Visual quantum mechanics, January 12, 2010

By 

Moussa El Najmi "Moussa El Najmi" (Dubai, U.A.E) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Picture Book of Quantum Mechanics (Hardcover)

This book on its own is not enough to understand the mathematics and physics that is required for an introductory course in quantum theory and quantum mechanics as a whole. It is an amazing supplement to any other material you might use to understand some sort of a physical representation to the nature of some of the phenomena associated.

The visualizations and graphs shed some much needed light on many topics, especially if you are doing this exploration on your own.

Don't expect the mathematics to be easy, and definitely don't expect everything in the book to be clear from the first instance but the visualizations truly give you a clearer picture of what is discussed. (something to imagine as you flip the equations around your head).

I personally jump from one material to another and return to the picture book to help me sink in the maths and the mind twisting revelations of QM.

Excellent addition to any serious library about quantum mechanics. Just wish it can be expanded with an excellent introduction and discussion like in Principles of Quantum Mechanics by R. Shankar.