171.303/4: Introduction to
Quantum Mechanics I/II
"The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment leads us to form- the one of the particles, the other of the waves- are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate in limiting cases."-Werner Heisenberg
Welcome to the website for the Johns Hopkins undergraduate quantum mechanics course. From here, you can get contact information, download assignments and solutions and check for announcements. Many links on this page are to PDF files. To view them, you can download Acrobat Reader for free.
Table of Contents
Course and
Contact Info
Professor Kovesi-Domokos' lectures are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9-9:50 am, in BLBG 274.
George's Section is Tuesday, 1:30-2:20 pm, in BLBG 274.
Sometimes, section and class will switch places; this will be announced in advance in class.
Required Textbooks:
| Professor: Zsuzsa Kovesi-Domokos |
skd@jhu.edu |
Bloomberg 445 |
x6-7840 |
Office Hours: |
W,F 1:30-2:30 or by appointment |
| Teaching Assistant: George
Bruhn |
gbruhn@pha.jhu.edu |
Bloomberg 459 |
x6-0461 |
Office Hours: |
Th 2P-4P or by appointment |
Professor Kovesi-Domokos' lectures are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9-9:50 am, in BLBG 274.
George's Section is Tuesday, 1:30-2:20 pm, in BLBG 274.
Sometimes, section and class will switch places; this will be announced in advance in class.
Required Textbooks:
Announcements
The FINAL will be this Friday, May 8 at 9 am in Bloomberg 274.
For even more links than you might know what to do with, see what Google.com has on "quantum mechanics". Beware, however: there is a lot of crap out there!
There are many excellent quantum mechanics texts out there. Most are above the level of the course, but can be informative or helpful conceptually. An undergraduate text between Griffiths and Townsend in sophistication is Liboff "Introductory Quantum Mechanics." Townsend was inspired by Sakurai "Modern Quantum Mechanics," if you like Townsend and are curious about a more advanced treatment. Also similar at the graduate level is Schwinger "Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements." Among other popular authors are Merzbacher and Messiah, and Shankar "Principles of Quantum Mechanics" is pretty much standard. For the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, there are standard books by John von Neumann and George Mackey. Landau and Lifschitz "Quantum Mechanics:Non-Relativistic Theory"(volume 3 of their 10 volume "Course of Theoretical Physics") has always been an undisputed classic.
A great book to look at is Mr. Tomkins In Paperback, by George Gamow. It is written for the general public, and has very little to no math in it, but it has some beautiful explanations. The idea is that Mr. Tomkins goes to a physics lecture and, taking us all for surprise, falls asleep. However, he has some great dreams where all the phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics becomes macroscopic. As an example, he must learn how to hit a billiard ball when confined to a small space of a pool table, and hence it's momentum becomes very uncertain. I heartily recommend you get a hold of this book and take a look at it.
(c) 2007; maintained by George Bruhn
The FINAL will be this Friday, May 8 at 9 am in Bloomberg 274.
Homework
Assignments
Here are the homework assignments and their respective solutions. Solutions can be obtained in Lecture and Section by request.
Here are the homework assignments and their respective solutions. Solutions can be obtained in Lecture and Section by request.
- The Teaching of Quantum Mechanics. A great page by Prof. Daniel Styer at Oberlin on QM teaching, with a link to his paper in Am. J. Phys, "Common Misconceptions regarding Quantum Mechanics", plus all kinds of wonderful teaching simulations.
- Quantum Mechanics Simulations and Explanations. This is a really cool site with a lot of demonstrations.
- Quantum Mechanics Made Simple! A ThinkQuest (TM) Competition website. Pretty fun. Have a look.
- Quantum Mechanics Message Board - Run by Barnes&Noble, this is a message board where you can post questions and answers to the general public. You need to create an account, but it's free.
- History of Quantum Mechanics - A history of the subject with links to many excellent biographies of the people who founded it (part of a larger library of math and physics history). If you like history of science, this is the place for you!
- Linear Algebra review (PDF) - These
are notes( by Andrew Blechman, Ph.D. 2006) from the first couple of sections reviewing some of the
basic and important tools of linear algebra. You will find that linear algebra is central to what we'll be doing here, and you need a good feel for it; it's more important than calculus!
- Mathematics Primer (PDF) - This is a review of mathematical tools useful for a first-year graduate student taking the graduate courses. Almost everything in here is too advanced for this course, but I include it here for the few useful things it has. Also, you can feel free to look it over and see what kind of mathematical trickery you would use as a graduate student.
- Quantum simulations - This is a project being constructed by Jeffrey Wasserman and Professor Oleg Tchernyshyov here at The Johns Hopkins University's Physics Department. The idea is to provide a quantum mechanics lab where you can do "experiments". The material is actually aimed at the graduate course, but there are still a few things that can be learned as an undergraduate.
- Physics department at Johns
Hopkins University.
For even more links than you might know what to do with, see what Google.com has on "quantum mechanics". Beware, however: there is a lot of crap out there!
There are many excellent quantum mechanics texts out there. Most are above the level of the course, but can be informative or helpful conceptually. An undergraduate text between Griffiths and Townsend in sophistication is Liboff "Introductory Quantum Mechanics." Townsend was inspired by Sakurai "Modern Quantum Mechanics," if you like Townsend and are curious about a more advanced treatment. Also similar at the graduate level is Schwinger "Quantum Mechanics: Symbolism of Atomic Measurements." Among other popular authors are Merzbacher and Messiah, and Shankar "Principles of Quantum Mechanics" is pretty much standard. For the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics, there are standard books by John von Neumann and George Mackey. Landau and Lifschitz "Quantum Mechanics:Non-Relativistic Theory"(volume 3 of their 10 volume "Course of Theoretical Physics") has always been an undisputed classic.
A great book to look at is Mr. Tomkins In Paperback, by George Gamow. It is written for the general public, and has very little to no math in it, but it has some beautiful explanations. The idea is that Mr. Tomkins goes to a physics lecture and, taking us all for surprise, falls asleep. However, he has some great dreams where all the phenomena of relativity and quantum mechanics becomes macroscopic. As an example, he must learn how to hit a billiard ball when confined to a small space of a pool table, and hence it's momentum becomes very uncertain. I heartily recommend you get a hold of this book and take a look at it.
(c) 2007; maintained by George Bruhn
