Customer Reviews

Quantum Physics Workbook For Dummies

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is fairly decent, at least what I have thus far been able to work through. Depending on what book you're using to start your undergraduate studies in quantum physics, this book may be of help at first or it may not. It jumps right into bra-ket notation, matrices, operators. Some books like Griffiths' Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, don't really touch much of that until around chapter 3 (well operators are hit in chapter 2). The problems are also a bit cookie cutter, in that they are pretty much the typical basic problems you'd find in any other book, then again, one wouldn't expect much more from a for Dummies book. The solutions are a bit terse at times, but overall they aren't too bad. The chapter breakdown is as follows,
1. The Basics of Quantum Physics: Introducing State Vectors
2. No Handcuffs Involved: Bound States in Energy Wells
3. Over and Over with Harmonic Oscillators
4. Handling Angular Momentum in Quantum Physics
5. Spin Makes the Particle Go Round
6. Solving Problems in Three Dimensions: Cartesian Coordinates
7. Going Circular in Three Dimensions: Spherical Coordinates
8. Getting to Know Hydrogen Atoms
9. Corralling Many Particles Together
10. Pushing with Perturbation Theory
11. One Hits the Other Scattering Theory
12. Ten Tips to Make Solving Quantum Physics Problems Easier
13. Ten Famous SOlved Quantum Physics Problems
14. Ten Ways to Avoid Common Errors When Solving Problems
Overall, the book is meant to compliment the book Quantum Physics for Dummies, also by the same author. So if you liked that book, you'll also probably like this book. Like most of the for Dummies series, there are much better books on the market, but at the same time, they usually aren't half bad either.

I picked up this book at the MIT bookstore after a quick glance-through at the table of contents. I was looking for a self-study bridge between the non-mathematical popular accounts and the level of background needed to follow more mathematical treatments. Unfortunately, the book seems to be a set of "homework problem solutions" that is not really stand-alone. In general, the book implicitly assumes that the reader already understands the concepts and just needs step-by-step guidance through a very specific algebraic manipulation. This is a very limited target audience. Perhaps this book would be more useful if accompanied by the author's "Quantum Physics for Dummies," but burned once, I hesitate to spend more money.

A major problem is that the book does not do a good job of defining notation. Unless you already know which symbols are numerical constants, vectors, or matrices, or what the difference is between [a,n] and <a|n> and so forth you will be lost. The occasional typos in the math can only frustrate a reader trying to follow a derivation. The format is a workbook with blank space below problems and the answers at the end of each chapter, but key concepts needed to solve the problem are not introduced in the text. The reader has to go to the answer section to find essential facts for the first time. The workbook format really does not function as intended.

A redeeming merit is that the book does show some common quantum equations expanded out into full matrix form. This is helpful if you are comfortable with linear algebra but have been intimidated by the concise formal equations used in quantum mechanics.

the outline is excellent at presenting the course basics. However, I needed a pre-course reference. I am not a physics major. Only a reader and I was expecting something more basic that introduced me to the math.