Message from discussion
can anybody recommend an introductory quantum mechanics
Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!xmission!news.cc.utah.edu!dog.ee.lbl.gov!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!ucdavis!not-for-mail
From: car...@no-physics-spam.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: sci.physics.particle
Subject: Re: can anybody recommend an introductory quantum mechanics
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 18:44:55 +0000 (UTC)
Organization: University of California, Davis
Lines: 33
Sender: Steve Carlip <car...@dirac.ucdavis.edu>
Message-ID: <c616n7$77o$1@woodrow.ucdavis.edu>
References: <bCYfc.169$eK3.13@nwrdny01.gnilink.net> <c5pmp5$4gvrs$1@ID-185976.news.uni-berlin.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dirac.physics.ucdavis.edu
X-Trace: woodrow.ucdavis.edu 1082400295 7416 169.237.42.165 (19 Apr 2004 18:44:55 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: usenet@ucdavis.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 18:44:55 +0000 (UTC)
User-Agent: tin/1.6.2-20030910 ("Pabbay") (UNIX) (Linux/2.4.20-30.9 (i686))
FrediFizzx <fredifi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "eder izaguirre" <i.e...@verizon.net> wrote in message
> news:bCYfc.169$eK3.13@nwrdny01.gnilink.net...
> | could anybody recommend a good introductory quantum mechanics textbook for
> | the undergraduate level?. I intend to use it for self-study.
> | Thanks in advance.
> Sure. "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by Griffiths is OK but there are
> probably better ones. Since I am also doing self-study of QM, I find this
> book very understandable. But in the usual Griffiths' style, he depends on
> the student working out problems for further treatment later on. This is
> somewhat of a pain for a self-study student but is not too bad. He
> sometimes tells what the answers are later on. So read the book fast one
> time and then go back and study it.
I'm teaching undergraduate quantum mechanics this quarter, and using
Griffiths as my main text. It's probably the most popular one for
such courses, at least among major universities in the US, judging
from Web pages I've looked at. It has a good assortment of topics,
and won't overwhelm you with the volume of material and the number
of different topics, as many texts will. (Authors of textbooks are
under some pressure to include everything anyone teaching a course
might want to cover; it may increase sales, but it results in bulky,
hard-to-follow, and somewhat intimidating books.)
As you say, though, Griffiths leaves a lot to problems, and also has
fairly few examples (though more in the new edition that was just
released). So I'm also recommending Zettili's _Quantum Mechanics:
Concepts and Applications_, which has an enormous number of worked
examples.
Steve Carlip
|
