The discussion focuses on the differences between the first and second editions of Griffiths's "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics," particularly in the context of their suitability for a junior/senior level undergraduate course. Participants explore various changes made in the second edition, including content adjustments and pedagogical enhancements.
Participants generally agree that the second edition contains significant revisions, particularly in Chapter 3, but there is no consensus on the extent or impact of these changes. Some details remain contested or unclear.
Limitations include potential missing details on other chapters, the subjective nature of "cleaner and more accessible," and the implications of the added problems and examples on course structure.
David J. Griffiths said:In preparing the second edition I have tried to retain as much as possible the spirit of the first. The only wholesale change is Chapter 3, which was much too long and diverting; it has been completely rewritten, with the background material on finite-dimensional vector spaces (a subject with which most students at this level are already comfortable) relegated to the Appendix. I have added some examples in Chapter 2 (and fixed the awkward definition of raising and lowering operators fro the harmonic oscillator). In later chapters I have made as few changes as I could, even preserving the numbering of problems and equations, where possible. The treatment is streamlined in places (a better introduction to angular momentum in Chapter 4, for instance, a simpler proof of the adiabatic theorem in Chapter 10, and a new section on partial wave phase shifts in Chapter 11). Inevitably, the second edition is a bit longer than the first, which I regret, but I hope it is cleaner and more accessible.