Liboff: A decent undergrad textbook?

[physicist311]

At our university we use Introductory Quantum Mechanics by Liboff 4th ed. What are your opinions on that book? I write this as a physics undergrad going to take QM next spring and looking for a decent well explained QM book to study over the summer. I also have a strong math background in Calc, ODE's, and Linear Algebra. Thanks.

 

[confinement]

I used Liboff as an undergrad and I think it is a very good book. The organization is non-standard, so it would be good to use a course syllabus as a guide (I would guess that the syllabus will do some jumping between chapters).

 

[physicist311]

confinement, how would you compare it to other books like Griffiths and Shankar?

 

[will.c]

I didn't really care for Liboff. It has maybe a bit more material than Shankar, but not as much physical motivation. Shankar is also much more self-contained and conducive to self-study.

 

[bozon]

I am reading forums time to time, but i was not a member up to now. I just registered to say this;

stay away from liboff in any case. griffiths' book is far way better than it. Shankar is a good book, too. Griffiths' book is a good start, though.

 

[physicist311]

Thanks Bozon. Since I first posted the topic, I have been talking to other students and grad students around the physics dept. about Liboff. Most agreed it was an OK book at best. Also, many told me that Griffiths is the best for a student first entering QM. So I think I will study Griffiths this summer. To everybody who replied: thanks for the help.