Quantum Mechanics Material Question

[Marthius]

This coming semester I will be taking phy 401 (mostly Quantum Mechanics I think). Anyway, I was planing to get a jump start by reading some of the textbook ahead of time, but when I opened it ("Quantum Mechanics" by Gasiorowicz, 3rd ed.) my head started to spin. Clearly there is a foundation missing which we will be covering in class, but which I do not yet have.

My question is this, can anyone recommend either a book or websight that I can look at inorder to get myself up to speed ahead of time? Perhaps just enough so that I can get stared on the real material.

 

[G01]

I used Gasiorowicz and I agree that, while the book is good, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. I found that reading Griffith's "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" along with Gasiorowicz is very helpful, especially if this is your first upper level QM course.

Be aware that Griffith's may be easier to read since I think he is a better writer than Gasiorowicz, but the latter covers much more material and covers bra-ket notation much more thoroughly, which is very important. Also, Griffith's is not much easier on math. If it is the math that is loosing you, I suggest you brush up on your differential equations and linear algebra. Also, you may find it useful to review a modern physics text like Serway's if you think you would benefit from a more basic introduction to the subject.