Quantum Mechanincs - a good book?

[manny6574]

Do any of you know any good books for a beginner to learn about Quantum Physics?

By beginner I mean that the book wouldn't be too hard to understand but not like some books w
hich contain no equations. I've kinda had enough of books that don't show at least a bit of the maths behind it all. But then again nothing on the level of a uni degree student, I'm 15. Anything you guys might might know?

[Kulverstukas]

Pardon me, but I highly doubt there is such thing as "easy" or "beginner level" in Quantum physics

[manny6574]

You'd be surprised.

Well, I've read Hawkings' "Brief History of Time", that has a chapter on QM  and a few other paragraphs. That was 'beginner'. But it mainly concentrated on theories on the large scale(macro, I belive) like the universe and stuff. I am looping forn something that will talk about the really small scale(QM). Just something that will more thoroughly explain QM and its concepts like the uncertainty rule, wave/particle dualism, quantum fluctuations, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the standard model etc.

But not really advanced. I know some of the stuff but not the maths, that's the bit I'd like to get a taster of.

[p_2001]

HC Verna Part 2... it had a section on modern physics. everything is given in short.

try Resnick Halliday part 2. this is a very good book. Resnick ha.. 1 and 2. Both are awesome books for physics. the part 1 is newton physics.

HC verma is good for problems and exercises but theory is given in less words and requires more careful reading.


for beginners you will learn atomic structure.. photoelectric effect ... uncertainty , binding energy and some more.

you will need to have some knowledge of math and some understanding of waves,SHM, fields and other topics.

[manny6574]

Seems like Resnick and Halliday are the authors, what is the actual title because there's quite a few

[z3ro]

You'd be surprised.

Well, I've read Hawkings' "Brief History of Time", that has a chapter on QM  and a few other paragraphs. That was 'beginner'. But it mainly concentrated on theories on the large scale(macro, I belive) like the universe and stuff. I am looping forn something that will talk about the really small scale(QM). Just something that will more thoroughly explain QM and its concepts like the uncertainty rule, wave/particle dualism, quantum fluctuations, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the standard model etc.

But not really advanced. I know some of the stuff but not the maths, that's the bit I'd like to get a taster of.

I've understood QM more from video than from books   

[Rochir]

I had pretty much exactly the same problem when I was 15. Kept running into books which were either too patronising or too maths-heavy.

To be honest, I never found the perfect book to solve this problem. But, I did find two which I'd recommend:

Introducing Quantum Theory by J. P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate is an illustrated book. But, don't let that put you off. It's done in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way and it gets quite heavy towards the end. I was really impressed with how much material they managed to get in there. They also spend a little bit of time on the philosophical implications of Quantum Theory, which I've always found fascinating. The best thing about this book is that they clearly tried very hard not to lose you along the way. But, they manage to give you a look and one of the best explanation I've found for the Maths behind Quantum Theory like the Schrodinger equation which, even now, I don't really have the mathematical tools to understand (studying Mathematics at university next year, so hopefully by the end of my degree!).

If you're determined to have a crack at some Maths, I quite liked Quantum Physics: A Beginner's Guide by Alastair I.M. Rae. My favourite thing about this was that you're given the option to do mathematical exercises which will, undoubtedly, further your understand, but you can quite happily read the book without doing a single one and still gain a better understanding of Quantum Physics. Downside to this is that it can be a little dry. At least, I thought so.

Anyway, as z3ro said, there are some great videos on Quantum Mechanics too.

[manny6574]

Thanks a lot, Rochir, I was considering the book by Rae, and videos are generally very simple and short in my opinion

[Rochir]

No problem. Just be prepared for slogging through the occasional dull problem with the Rae book!

Videos can be simple and short. But, there are occasionally some very well thought through ones. Although, if you're looking for more mathematical material, I can see why you might not be a huge fan of videos.

Another thing I'd advise is not to underestimate public lectures. From my experience, the less famous the speaker, the more in depth they go. The best ones are when they start off from the basics and get more and more complex until they eventually go past what you already know. Just be prepared to get incredibly tired of hearing about the ultraviolet catastrophe!

[manny6574]

that's a good idea, I just looked on youTube and found a couple lectures that I'll watch tommorow. It is annoyingly hard to find something intermediate on this subject, but it is the most interesting aspect of physics in my opinion.