A Student's Guide to the Schrodinger Equation (Student's Guides)

Superb. I wish Daniel Fleisch wrote every science or math book that I need. He is very clear and thorough. His online videos and problem hints/solutions are a great bonus to supplement learning the material.

I have read Susskind, Schwichtenberg, McMahon and Griffins, and really struggled through their explanations of quantum mechanics. As someone trying to learn quantum mechanics on my own, I couldn't comprehend the connections, how operators, vectors, matrices and inner products connected with real world problems, until I found this book. With straight-forward explanations and problem sets, everything finally made sense. I could understand how to find eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, how to calculate coefficients and expectation values, how momentum and position are related through the Fourier transferm, how to use the time dependent and independent Schrodinger equation, and what the terms in the Schrodinger equation itself meant. A slim 217 page volume, it was worth every penny. It didn't cover some aspects of quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and Bell's theorem, but many other books are available for those topics. Now going back through the other books, everything makes more sense, and I feel like I have a better chance of understanding Shankar or Sakurai.

The STUDENT’S GUIDE TO THE SCHRODINGER EQUATION is another great book by Daniel Fleisch in his “Student’s Guides” series of books in topics relating to physics and astronomy. (The others I’ve worked thru and have given reviews on are his individual Student’s Guides to the topics of “Waves”, “Maxwell’s Equations”, “Vectors and Tensors”, and the “Mathematics of Astronomy”.) Fleisch’s book on the Schrodinger Equation is his first book dealing with Quantum Mechanics. Topics include: CHAPTER 1: VECTORS AND FUNCTIONS- Basic ideas, Dirac Notation, Abstract and Complex and Orthogonal varieties for each, and Inner Products. CHAPTER 2: OPERATORS AND EIGENFUNCTIONS- More on Dirac Notation, Hermitian and Projection operators, Expectation Values. CHAPTER 3: THE SCHRODINGER EQUATION- Origin, Meaning, The Time Independent form. CHAPTER 4: SOLVING THE SCHRODINGER EQUATION- The Born Rules and Copenhagen Interpretation, Quantum States and Wavefunctions, Operators, Wave Packets, Position and Momentum Wavefunctions and Operators along with calculating Probable Outcomes. CHAPTER 5: SOLUTIONS FOR SPECIFIC POTENTIALS- Wave Functions and Energy Eigenvalues relating to Infinite and Finite Square Wells and the Harmonic Oscillator. As is true for all Fleisch’s books each chapter concludes with a set of problems to try. One thing I really appreciate is that Dr. Fleisch has set up a specific website showing complete solutions and answers to every problem along with supplementary teaching videos for every chapter. In my opinion this is extremely important and useful for a person such as myself doing the book as a self-study. I found this book to be quite challenging in spots as might be expected considering the topic. Fleisch does an excellent job explaining the concepts and mathematics that goes with it. Some of it reminded me of the complexity accompanying the Graduate School course in Quantum Mechanics I took many years ago. All in all, this short book is a great introduction to the basics of Quantum Mechanics. I highly recommend it!

Excellent book it gives you problems to work out but then it does not give you any answers or solutions to the problems because it's located on a website that no longer works.

I’ve always loved physics, and actually have a personal library of over 100 books. I am a retired mechanical engineer (Ph.D. 1988), having spent most of my career in management not doing a lot of heavy-duty math. For the last several years, I’ve been teaching myself general relativity which has helped rehabilitate my weakened math skills. I’ve been looking for a book at the right level to start a serious study of quantum mechanics. A Student’s Guide to the Schrodinger Equation turned out to be the perfect starting point for my quantum journey. Professor Daniel Fleisch has a real gift for clearly explaining the underlying math and physics. He provides sufficient detail without slowing the pace in a way that would discourage a self-learner from proceeding. At 200 pages, the book is truly an introduction that leaves the student eager to learn more. The book’s website is also extremely helpful. Professor Fleisch’s video guide through each chapter reinforces the written text, and his detailed solution to each problem in the book has been essential in solidifying my understanding of all the presented concepts. (Most traditional text books don’t provide detailed solutions to all problems, which is a real deterrent for self-study.) Over a period of 5 weeks, I’ve been able to make it through the entire book, working through a number of the key derivations (like the quantum harmonic oscillator) and doing each of the 50 problems. With the help of Professor Fleisch’s book, I feel that I am more than ready to move to the next level in learning the fascinating world of physics at the particle and atomic scale.

This book covers the same material that you'll usually see in the first 3-4 chapters of a typical quantum mechanics textbook, but with exceptional clarity and thoroughness. Fleisch's exposition of Dirac's bra-ket notation is unparalleled by any other QM book I've read. Highly recommended. I see some reviewers saying that the website no longer works; the page on Cambridge's website is in fact broken, but all the supplementary material can still be accessed through Dan Fleisch's personal website.

Daniel Fleisch through online videos and all of the "Student's Guides" he has been author or co-author, there is no finer teacher of higher mathematics and physics. This current guide explains the Schrodinger Equation in a way that can be understood by anyone who had calculus, differential equations and several physics courses in college many years ago. The good news is that not much has changed except the teaching and online videos available to aid the wannabe lifelong learner. I'm not a physicist or mathematician. I would value any and all of their reviews. I am writing for someone like me that hasn't given up trying to understand quantum mechanics after 55 years separation from those college days.

Professor Fleisch clearly is a experienced teacher who understands the difficulties of learning this subject. To understand this book the reader should have experience in complex variables, matrix calculus, differential and integral calculus, partial differential equations, statistics, Fourier theory and wave theory. In many undergraduate programs a review course of this math is taken before their first quantum mechanics course. There is a short review of complex variables, a nice explanation of phasors, and a short introduction to Fourier theory.The explanation of delta functions and their usefulness in calculations is emphasized. At page 138 the author addresses four common misunderstandings that students have. The subsequent explanations are lucid and very helpful. Three types of solutions are given in the final chapter. There are very full explanations of the infinite rectangular well, the finite rectangular wells, and the harmonic oscillator. The problems are solved in the x dimension. For multidimensional problems and the study of the hydrogen atom you will need to look elsewhere. The greatest beauty of the text is the 50 total problems at the end of the chapters and their fully solved answers. You can try them unsolved with multiple hints. I found the solutions at danfleisch.com/SGSE were better formatted. The bracket notation did not output properly at the listed website in the book. Overall a wonderful book.

El libro está muy bien, y no da por supuesto nada.

Two chapters in and I'm more confident in my understanding of quantum mechanics than with any other primer I've looked at. Topics covered so far include kets, bras, Hilbert spaces, operators (including the "projection operators" which I've previously struggled to understand) and expectation values. The author cleverly works in algebraic manipulation of Dirac vectors bit by bit so you almost don't realise you're learning it. He introduces the "matrix" and "continuous function" versions of quantum mechanics side-by-side so you see exactly how they are equivalent. The book constantly gives you hints as to why each mathematical topic will become relevant to quantum mechanics so that you always have an eye on the big picture. Unlike many books on the subject, this one is not overly concise. The author takes the time and trouble to expand and complete most calculations with as many intermediate steps as needed to make things completely clear. Worthy of mention are the supporting materials found on the book's website. Each section of every chapter has its own short video with the author picking up the main themes and adding embellishments here and there. I've found these invaluable. Also useful are the fully-worked out solutions to the exercises at the end of each chapter. These can be viewed in hint-by-hint or full-solution forms. You'll need mathematics to A-level standard in specific topics (calculus, matrices, vectors) which of course is to be expected for this subject, but the author presents refreshers on each topic where necessary.

highly readable and clear explanation. Highly recommend

I won't lie. If you're a physics student (for university, or you're an amateur and are serious about learning some quantum mechanics 4 fun), START by reading this book. It will help you SO much to get beyond barriers that you'd encounter if you "started" learning it at uni. It breaks down bra-ket notation so simply, has EXAMPLES including DETAILED solutions, there's not much more you can ask for. It lays a perfect foundation for understanding this topic.

Stocked with examples and links to additional videos and exercices, this is absolute one of the very best books on mathematics and/or physics I have ever read. Continually enlightening the connections to other fields and results in simple yet precise words, it is a real eye opener and an absolute must read.