Recent content by Brad Barker

that is correct.

note to future applicants: stanford apparently doesn't care if you got a ****ing perfect score on the general gre. :/

GPA: 4.0 GRE physics: 920 GRE General --Math: 800 --Verbal: 800 --Writing: 5.5 Research: Two REU's, plus research during senior year (no publications, though) Work: TA'd for a math class; worked as a physics tutor during freshman year (and now)

today i heard from berkeley and stanford. got into berkeley. got rejected by stanford. :/ my status (physics student, here): accepted with fellowship: uiuc u chicago accepted with teaching assistantship: cornell ucsb berkeley rejected: stanford waiting on: MIT...

going to grad school for condensed matter theory uc santa barbara stanford berkeley illinois-urbana/champaign chicago mit harvard cornell at the moment, only four of the eight schools have contacted me to let me know that my application is complete. :/ i might hear back from...

i think a solid introductory level text on calculus-based physics is sufficient. the halliday, resnick, and krane vol. 1 and 2 even have a bit of special relativity and "modern physics"-level quantum mechanics. when i was a whipper-snapper, i used another text, but it lacked the extra...

coincidentally, i spent today perusing through omar's elementary solid state physics, and it looks to be pretty good.

physics 920 (91st percentile)

\frac{x^2}{a^2}+\frac{y^2}{b^2}=\frac{xy}{c^2} \smallskip \mbox{let} x=ar\cos\theta \mbox{and} y=ar\sin\theta \smallskip (r^2\cos^2\theta+r^2\sin^2\theta)^2=\frac{xy}{c^2} ...wait a minute, why does your first equation not have the terms squared, but then after the substitution, they are...

i just skimmed your work and noticed that you had dxdy = drd\theta . the correct relationship is dxdy = rdrd\theta .

image not working for me. i'd recommend putting in a little bit of time to learn what you need to about latex to be able to post your problem. knowing latex is important if you intend on publishing research papers, anyway.

if there is a course offered on general relativity for undergrads, it is likely an elective, whereas quantum mechanics is typically (universally?) a requirement for a physics degree. in my experience, i took linear algebra the semester after differential equations. fairly interchangeable.

think of what the hermitian conjugate is for AB...

why would you want to undo the transformation? the "x" in the integral is a dummy variable, just as "y" is. let's start and end even further: <P\psi|\psi> = \int_{-\infty}^\infty<P\psi|x><x|\psi>dx = \int_{-\infty}^\infty(P\psi(x))^*\psi(x)dx = \int_{-\infty}^\infty\psi^*(-x)\psi(x)dx...

it's not a function of x or y! they're just a complete set of states. you can "remove" them entirely, in a sense, and go back to bra-ket notation, where you'll clearly see that we've solved the problem. if you'd like, you can let y --> x in that last integral. it doesn't matter. it's all...