Elementary books of quantum mechanics

[Mandeep Deka]

Sir, I have a tremendous interest in quantum mechanics but I am just an high school graduate, and i don't know anything much in depth, especially the mathematical part. I have just done the basics of calculus but i want to study about quantum mechanics.

Basically, i am completely clueless as to where i should begin from and how i should proceed if i want to study quantum mechanics of my own...

Please guide me through the course/chapters that i need to study in a systematic order to be able to study quantum mechanics. And after that, please suggest, where do i start studying quantum mechanics from. (It would have been great if along with the course, you would suggest some good books from where i can study them)

Thank You

 

[brocks]

Use Google to find a syllabus for a QM course that covers what you want to learn (if you include
site:.edu
as one of the search terms, your results will all come from universities). I recommend the MIT OCW site to start with.

Look at the syllabus and see what the prerequisite courses are. Look at the syllabus for *those* courses and see what *their* prerequisites are. And so on, until you find a course that you are already qualifed to take.

Then you have to take it, and the next, and the next, until you're ready for the QM course. You can do it online at a site like MIT OCW, or just read the texts yourself, but you have to do it. Basically, if you're just a high school grad with rudimentary calculus, then you have years of study ahead of you, assuming you want to really learn QM, rather than read a popular treatment about it. Lots of math, and lots of basic physics. There's no short cut that let's you learn it in a few months. A physics major spends four years of full time study as an undergraduate, and is far from mastering QM when he graduates, although he has probably taken an introductory class in it.

Good luck to you.

 

[sponsoredwalk]

You will need precalculus, http://press.princeton.edu/video/banner/, http://www.uccs.edu/~math/vidarchive.html, http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?subjectId=122107036 , http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?subjectId=122107037 , http://www2.latech.edu/~schroder/stat_videos.htm & some elementary physics. Then you'll be able for some http://physicsstream.ucsd.edu/ . These quantum mechanics (& other kinds of physics) videos will be good to check out as well as you progress in your studies. Nearly every one of those links has videos in other subjects that you will most definitely need to check up on time & again. Most of the links will mention a book you can use along with the videos if you need to but many of them are good just to watch anyway just to see how things go. Figure it out

 

[hitmeoff]

You will need precalculus, http://press.princeton.edu/video/banner/, http://www.uccs.edu/~math/vidarchive.html, http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?subjectId=122107036 , http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/video.php?subjectId=122107037 , http://www2.latech.edu/~schroder/stat_videos.htm & some elementary physics. Then you'll be able for some http://physicsstream.ucsd.edu/ . These quantum mechanics (& other kinds of physics) videos will be good to check out as well as you progress in your studies. Nearly every one of those links has videos in other subjects that you will most definitely need to check up on time & again. Most of the links will mention a book you can use along with the videos if you need to but many of them are good just to watch anyway just to see how things go. Figure it out

Absolutely not! If he wants to study QM at the level a Physics major in his junior level of college, then you are absolutely right. He can begin getting some idea, or feel for the subject at a conceptual level by reading pop sci books like QED by Feynman, or any standard Conceptual Physics text. If he has an interest in learning something right now, there's no need to "wait" two years before he picks up all the math and physics needed for a junior level class.

Even at the level of a "College Physics" class (ie. trig based), he can get some exposure to quantum. And at the freshman/sophomore Calc-Based physics level, just the basics of Calculus and very very very elementary DEs are needed. When you start talking about needed formal courses in LA and DEs, now you are talking about the level of Griffiths.

 

[Ashuron]

if you are just interested then..Understanding Quantum Physics: A User's Manual
it's a good book that does not requires a lot of higher maths..
he will teach you the maths..

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0137479085/?tag=pfamazon01-20

the problem is the book does not follow the common syllabus for intro quantum mechanics course..so using it as a textbook may not be practical..
this suits you..since you just want to learn qm by yourself..