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Introductory Quantum Mechanics (4th Edition)

Introductory Quantum Mechanics (4th Edition)

List Price: $100.00
Your Price: $95.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Terribly written and lacks explanation
Review: Before you attempt to study Quantum Mechanics, try taking classical mechanics first. If you don't understand operators and all that other mechanics stuff, don't bother trying to learn quantum mechanics yet. This book is certainly not for the beginning physics student who wants an "understanding" of quantum mechanics, no no, this is the real deal.
I feel that one major drawback of this book is that it is written in numbers rather than letters and that someone who considers themselves prone to reading words rather than equations should look for an easier text.
Although, if your taking, say an intermediate Quantum course, than you should consider this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Important
Review: Before you attempt to study Quantum Mechanics, try taking classical mechanics first. If you don't understand operators and all that other mechanics stuff, don't bother trying to learn quantum mechanics yet. This book is certainly not for the beginning physics student who wants an "understanding" of quantum mechanics, no no, this is the real deal.
I feel that one major drawback of this book is that it is written in numbers rather than letters and that someone who considers themselves prone to reading words rather than equations should look for an easier text.
Although, if your taking, say an intermediate Quantum course, than you should consider this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good for reading without a teacher.
Review: First a little about myself. I was a math major when I went to school thirty years ago. I took a few elementary physics courses back then but remember very little. I read most of Principles of QM by P.A.M. Dirac before I read this book. However I have not read any other texts and so I cannot do a good job of comparing this book to others. I have the second printing of the fourth edition. This printing has hundreds of typos. I sent a bunch of e-mails to Professor Liboff informing him of the ones that I found and he indicated to me that in subsequent printings these typos would be fixed.

I found that I was able to understand most of it without access to a teacher to help me. My complaint with Dirac is that although it explains theory quite well, it doesn't privide problem solving techniques. Liboff's book is quite good for that. As for theory, although Dirac is more thorough, there were important gaps in my understanding after reading Dirac that were cleared up by Liboff. Liboff is easier to understand.

In the fourth edition there is a new chapter on Quantum Computing. In my opinion, this chapter is extremely weak. Shor's algorithm for factoring integers is a probabilistic one, but this fact is not mentioned in the text. A probabilistic algorithm, simply stated, is one that does not always work. For instance Shor's algorithm fails to factor the number 9, but Liboff uses 9 as an example. In fact there is a definition of probabilistic algorithms in the book, but it fails to bring out the features that make Shor's alorithm understandable. Fortunately, this one bad chapter does not ruin the book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good and comprehensive text
Review: Foremost I promise that my views won't be biased even though Professor Liboff's office is just next to mine. Apparently you can get a glimpse of the cover in the SpiderMan 2 movie for a fraction of a second.

I am an electrical engineering major and more into using quantum mechanics as a tool to solve problems. A preliminary course on quantum physics and mathematics will be useful to follow the book smoothly. Most of the explanations are well written, but again the depth varies depending on author's as well as reader's background (and is true for any scientific book).

The book develops most of the mathematical tools necessary for the book eg Bessel functions, spherical harmonics etc. My physics friend told me that relativistic quantum mechanics is also covered well (I never read this topic myself). Discussion about symmetry is also well presented.

Check out the book in library and get a feel for it before you buy. Not every book is for every one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent undergrad QM text.
Review: I agree with the reader from Berkeley. I also took a year long sequence (at Illinois) that only required the Griffiths book. Although enjoyable to read, Griffith's books always seem to lack details necessary to the serious student.

Liboff's book is comprehensive and well-written.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good text book, even better if the author is your Prof!!
Review: I took Prof. Liboff's "Intro. Quantum Mechanics class(for Sophomore/Junior Engineers)" at Cornell Univ. 2 years ago, and this book was used as the course text. The book helped us a lot to understand otherwise incomprehesible lectures by the author...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not a bad book but lacks depth
Review: I used this books for two quarters and covered 13 chapters. Though the books is quite comprehensive it lacks depth. The chapter 8 on periodic lattice and energy gaps is not very clear and misses many derivations. However the book has many interesting problems that can help one understand the subject.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intro Quantum Mechanics
Review: I'm currently taking AP physics in high school but my side hobby is higher physics. After mastering the book "Mathematical Methods for physicists" by George B. Arfken, I shifted my interests toward Quantum Mechanics. So I purchased this book and within 5 weeks I was learning the pertubation theory. With a help of Schaum's Outlines on Quantum Mechanics and Feynman Lectures on Physics the learning experience was incredible. The book has few worked out problems so Schaum's Outlines on Quantum Mechanics should be used along with this book.

I recommend this book for high school and college students and hobbyists.

Goodluck.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intro Quantum Mechanics
Review: I'm currently taking AP physics in high school but my side hobby is higher physics. After mastering the book "Mathematical Methods for physicists" by George B. Arfken, I shifted my interests toward Quantum Mechanics. So I purchased this book and within 5 weeks I was learning the pertubation theory. With a help of Schaum's Outlines on Quantum Mechanics and Feynman Lectures on Physics the learning experience was incredible. The book has few worked out problems so Schaum's Outlines on Quantum Mechanics should be used along with this book.

I recommend this book for high school and college students and hobbyists.

Goodluck.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good for reference (kind of), not for learning
Review: Learning quantum mechanics from this book is not an easy thing to do. For instance, the section on Dirac notation is 3/4 of a page long, introducing a completely new tool that is used everywhere in the book. Once you have suffered through learning the material once, however, then a glance at the book will easily bring back memories of the material, along with the pain that kept you from sitting comfortably for weeks. So, overall, it's good for a reference book, but not especially good to learn introductory quantum mechanics from.


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