Rating: 
Summary: Good Secondary Resource
Review: Although I would agree that this is probably the best book to begin your study of quantum mechanics with, there are still serious flaws with the book. I just finished taking a class that used this text and I found that a major problem is that it never actually 'get's to the point.' Instead of telling you how to apply a technique to solving problems, the text simply assumes that you'll be able to figure that out yourself. So much of the notation goes unexplained and important points go unemphasized. I would suggest using this book if you're a first time student of quantum mechanics but supplement it with another book that explains how to do problems (Liboff or Griffiths).
Rating: 
Summary: Better than most
Review: Although I would agree that this is probably the best book to begin your study of quantum mechanics with, there are still serious flaws with the book. I just finished taking a class that used this text and I found that a major problem is that it never actually 'get's to the point.' Instead of telling you how to apply a technique to solving problems, the text simply assumes that you'll be able to figure that out yourself. So much of the notation goes unexplained and important points go unemphasized. I would suggest using this book if you're a first time student of quantum mechanics but supplement it with another book that explains how to do problems (Liboff or Griffiths).
Rating: 
Summary: Learn Quantum Physics from Eisberg and Resnick.
Review: I disagree completely with the previous reviewer. When I took my first quantum physics course, we used this book and I found it largely incomprehensible. Too many concepts were not explained adequately, and the presentation of the topics lacks logical progression. I found Eisberg and Resnick a much better introductory quantum physics text.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful intro text for the able freshmen/sophomores
Review: I used this book for my intro to Quantum Physics class at Cornell. Although some of the problems are nice, the book itself blows. The topics are not covered in depth at all, kinda reads like an outline of another book rather than an independent textbook. So many topics are missing or the important parts of topics are just ignored (how can you not cover electron spin precession!?!) Well all I gotta say is that I wound up reading Feynman's Lectures On Physics and Eisberg and Resnick instead. Eisberg and Resnick is one of the best books that I seen on an intro to QP(it is very wordy, but you get all the nice detail, be it hard or easy). So I can't say F&T is a good book, but I'll give it 2 stars for the problems.
Rating: 
Summary: Read this to miss out on Quantum Physics
Review: I used this book for my intro to Quantum Physics class at Cornell. Although some of the problems are nice, the book itself blows. The topics are not covered in depth at all, kinda reads like an outline of another book rather than an independent textbook. So many topics are missing or the important parts of topics are just ignored (how can you not cover electron spin precession!?!) Well all I gotta say is that I wound up reading Feynman's Lectures On Physics and Eisberg and Resnick instead. Eisberg and Resnick is one of the best books that I seen on an intro to QP(it is very wordy, but you get all the nice detail, be it hard or easy). So I can't say F&T is a good book, but I'll give it 2 stars for the problems.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read and really focuses on the Physics
Review: OK, so this book is old, having been written in the 1970s. For all that, it still does the core things excellently: namely focus on the Physics, the experiments, the theory, AND the people behind the advances.After going through the antecedents of the classical atomic model, the authors quickly move onto the wave-particle duality. They describe, throughout, groundbreaking experimental work of the likes of Thompson and Davisson & Germer. After setting the foundations, French and Taylor go to the discussion of the one dimensional Schrodinger equation, its physical meaning, and several examples of solutions by means of qualitative plots. Photons and Quantum States, Angular momentum, Atomic Systems, a detailed discussion of the Hydrogen atom and Radiation from atoms make up the rest of the book. What I particularly like about this book is that it is grounded in the Physics, with experiment and theory given an equal footing. The authors are gentle with their use of mathematics. The concept of operators is applied to the physical problem. This, despite what to some people would be the book's "old fashioned" nature, is refreshing. Too often, the authors of modern books on Quantum Physics "pose" with fancy mathematics to try to impress their colleagues or students. This book is easy to read, there are plenty of worked examples and end of chapter exercises to keep the student busy. I recommend this book thoroughly.
Rating:
Summary: Great treatment of basic topics
Review: Several of the other reviews here express my general, very positive feelings about this book, so I'll concentrate on two specific examples which illustrate the teaching emphasis of the book's authors. Chapters 6 and 7 introduce quantum states with a brilliant discussion of Dirac's bracket notation using polarization of light as the driving example. The student at this level typically already knows what to expect when, for example, linearly polarized light passes through a linear analyzer oriented at an angle with respect to the polarization axis. The authors develop a set of projection amplitudes for linear and circular polarization which reproduce the results familiar to the student. This makes state vectors easy to understand and, in turn, it's much easier to learn and accept the less intuitive results which come from solving more complex problems later on. I would recommend this book for these two chapters alone. In Chapter 9 the authors in just a few pages develop a simple but quantitative theory of alpha decay which is easy to follow and relates half-life (or decay constant) to alpha-particle energy with no adjustable parameters. They then compare their result to experiment and show agreement over 24 orders of magnitude of half-life. This example wonderfully illustrates the power of simple, clear reasoning to achieve a widely applicable result. Fantastic job! I own three or four introductory quantum mechanics texts, but this is the one I turn to first.
Rating:
Summary: Average
Review: This book is pretty average. It doesn't generate much excitement about the subject, and it really doesn't give as much detail as it should. This book *should* be seen as an introduction to an introductory course in quantum mechanics. A better, albeit more expensive book, is the one by Gasiorowicz or Griffiths.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent organization and clear explanations
Review: This book is very pedagogical. It follows a logical order in presenting the very complicated development of quantum physics. It's like taking a step back and collecting your thoughts. No physics student or physics teacher should be without it.
Rating:
Summary: Good Secondary Resource
Review: This book should seriously be used ONLY with another text. A good one (in my opinion) is Griffiths. It goes into great depth (sometimes too much) conceptually and is very weak with the mathematics. Another reviewer said somethings about not giving many applications, and i agree. It gets the idea down, but no more than that. Griffiths along side this is awesome, and if you have time after those two, take a look at Shakars book; its a little harder mathematically, but if you hit those three together, youll prolly have a good idea of what QM is about. Feynman Lectures also help.
Point being: Dont use this book alone, very good otherwise.
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