Matrix Mechanics for the Bored Wave Mechanics Student

[wavemaster]

For someone who's bored with wave mechanics, would you suggest studying Heisenberg's matrix mechanics (which was the first formulation)?

Are there any major/conceptual differences? (except one talks about waves and the other doesn't!)
And for someone who wants to study it, what books/online docs would you suggest? Damn, all QM I have ever found covers wave-mechanics majorly, and some briefly mention matrix mechanics when the title hits angular momentum.

 

[Rach3]

Look at J. Townsend's text; if you find it too pedantic try J.J. Sakurai. Both are certainly in your school's library.

A short answer - there are major superficial differences. The "matrix mechanics" as you call it is a very general and abstract formalism; wave mechanics falls out easily as a special case. It is often more useful to work with waves, where everything is in differential equations.

 

[reilly]

Read Dirac's Quantum Mechanics.
regards,
Reilly Atkinson