Recent content by romistrub

For QM, I actually started with Shankar, which took some doing, but I have a good grasp of the ideas. I'm supplementing it with Bohm and Landau/Lifgarbagez when explanations or mathematics are lacking, respectively. Cohen-Tannoudji has been on the way from India for some time now (heh), and I...

Wow, I write like a pretentious jerk!

I am inclined to disagree with the comparison between my proposed line of study and your combined degree. In particular, I am working towards something very specific, and I have a fairly good sense of direction.

That wasn't so much a comment intended to indicate genuine non-understanding, but rather to indicate the buzz-word connotations behind the term, and hence its dilution as a real concept.

Consider that nearly everything you use has been engineered. Now consider how many things you have used that have failed; consider recalls, and the like. The paper trail often leads back to the engineer.

This was my first and still is my primary concern. However, I intend on pursuing many research positions during the course of my studies, and will be writing a thesis at the end of it. I am running the idea by some members of the IQC next week to ensure that I am not digging my own grave...

Here's one thing you should consider above all others: An engineer creates no more and no less than a scientist, but, what an engineer creates is typically intended for direct use by the public. With this comes significant risk, and with this risk comes the pay. This is the same reason that...

Basically, I'm looking at switching into the Independent Studies program, which grants you the flexibility of taking almost any course you want (sans engineering courses). To do this, I must come up with, not a course list, but a "study plan", which is a more vague variant on a full-blown...

I'm still wondering how more people don't know about the idea of an independent study. Many universities offer it. I've taken four calculus courses, and a linalg course. I'm not entirely sure how easily I can elucidate that right now.

So I've been given the opportunity to create my own undergraduate honours program. I can take whatever courses from whatever faculty I want at almost any university (although I'm keeping it local). I can create from scratch courses that do not yet exist immediately prior to taking them. I am to...

I am wondering if the next computation gives some insight: Shankar then computes the matrix elements of X in the K basis as: where, again, to me \left\langle x|k\right\rangle \propto e^{ikx} and not \left|k\right\rangle \propto e^{ikx}

Shankar p68-69 gives a mathematical "derivation" of the action of the X (position) operator, the summary of which is as follows: I followed the logic without a problem, since it only involves using the matrix elements of X in the basis of eigenfunctions of X. However, the next paragraph reads...

I'm sure this question comes up a lot around here (I can see as much from the other threads on this page), but the flavour of this question is particular to me: I'm looking for books on quantum theory. Now, I say "quantum theory" because I'm not entirely sure wherein lies the subsets of...

I'm just uncomfortable with the "solution by drawing it on paper" strategy. What if you have a four-dimensional integral (it could happen...)? Maybe it's just one of those aspects of calculus that descends into numerical methods once the analysis becomes too bumpy. Anyways, thanks for the help!

So, I've got a problem understanding the "algorithm" for changing variables in a more-than-one-dimensional integral. For the two-dimensional case, I've got a specific problem that I'm looking at: \int^{a}_{0}\left(\int^{2a-x}_{x}\frac{y-x}{4a^2+(y+x)^2}dy\right)dx which I assume is an...