No-Nonsense Quantum Mechanics: A Student-Friendly Introduction, Second Edition

This book is a joy to read! It is beautifully executed with many attractive, hand-drawn figures to show complex concepts. Remarks are in the margin, easy to read as part of the flow, rather then the footnotes. The author writes in an easy and clear style. The material is well organized with cross references in the book easy to track. A great introduction to quantum mechanics as it is practiced and understood today. The overview of all major formalisms will help the student when exploring the literature further. The book ends with a nice guide to excellent books for further in-depth study.

I spent years trying to gain an understanding of quantum mechanics. I had studied partial differential equations and understood them. I knew how to solve the wave equation. But what the wave equation represented and how it came to be was a mystery. I got the best books written on the subject that were recommended by phd’s in physics, but none explained what things meant. They all assumed you already knew. I posted the wave equation on the blackboard in my office determined to learn what it meant. Thanks to this book I understand it so well I can derive it in my head. I had also seen the term “symmetry” tossed around a lot without explanation until I read this book and now I understand what it is and why it is important. The reason a “ket” is the transposed complex cojugate of a “bra” is now crystal clear. These are just a few examples of what I personally got out of this book. Schwichtenberg does a great job of illuminating this subject and I have or will purchase the rest pf his books on physics. He comes off very modest, but he has a deep understanding of the subject matter and the ability to explain things in a way that makes sense. The book is more about understanding and presents the basic problems but is not meant to be an in depth compendium of problems. I like this because it allows me to read the entire book at a reasonable rate without getting bogged down in arcane details of finite mathematics that won’t be memorized and can be looked up when needed to solve a problem. I still need to solve a lot of problems to become really good at quantum mechanics, but things are no longer mysterious. I highly recommend this book if you want just the facts to form a basis of understanding.

This book is beautifully written. It is truly a no-nonsense introduction to Quantum Mechanics. The author is clearly quite talented in explaining things. I enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning Quantum Mechanics. Five stars!

I have to admit in college I decided to be a chemistry major in college after looking at a quantum mechanics textbook and being overwhelmed by the math and symbols. If you do not have the foundation in basic and vector calculus, linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations, and statistics you will become quickly lost. No-Nonsense Quantum Mechanics is a nice fast read of first semester quantum mechanics if you are comfortable with the noted math. I would have given the book five stars if there was an expanded treatment of the mathematical foundation. This could be easily added with additional appendices or perhaps in a separate book. It is best to learn this math in high school so that classical mechanics, electrodynamics, and quantum mechanics are not overwhelming in the beginning of college. If you are returning to these subjects later in life and you know and remember this math, this book is a wonderful read. (If you pick your books right you can learn this math on your own over six to twelve months. There are also some very good on line tutoring services if you need help.) Part 3 of the book is a nice discussion of different formulations of quantum mechanics and the philosophy of quantum mechanics. I was not familiar with the quote from Heisenberg,"space is blue and birds fly through it." It is Spring and going to be beautiful today.

This book mainly focuses on the general principles and most common methods used to solve quantum mechanics problems. Don't expect it to teach you have to solve any specific problem - it won't. Instead, read this book to get a good "bird's eye view" of what it means to become involved in quantum mechanics. I'm not saying that this book is dumbed down - not at all. Every page is covered in equations. However, don't let the "symbol soup" intimidate you too much. I haven't done any calculus or linear algebra since college (over 25 years ago) and I was still able to follow most of this book. Every equation is derived by the author, and while I did not always fully understand each step, the author always included a plain text explanation of the meaning behind the equation, often with simple examples. There were several cases where I got lost in the math, but understood the meaning of the end result, and that was good enough for learning the principle the chapter was trying to teach. The writing was clear, the illustrations plentiful, and plenty of references are given if you wish to investigate specific areas further.

This is actually very good. The translations can use a little work and there may be one or two small (insignificant to a first time learner) details that may be incorrect or just written in a strange way, but overall this gives a pretty straightforward and easy to follow introduction to the core concepts in undergraduate quantum mechanics. It also makes a good companion to an actual undergraduate course. There are no problems in this book. It does read like a discussion and I do recommend this to anyone struggling with the content or who wants to see quantum before jumping in.

I found this book to be a very good introduction. I particularly liked the use of Dirac notation from the beginning. Also, the derivations of the most important operators from symmetry relations was enlightening. The brief discussion of alternatives to the wave function interpretation was nice to find on an introductory level. On the down side, some mathematical notation is a bit different from other books in English, but transparent. The book contains some errors, but these were easily spotted. The level is similar to that of Susskind's notes to the 'theoretical limit ' course, but I found this book to be better organized. I would recommend it for someone who wants some insight into quantum mechanics with a modicum of rigor, and with a moderate background in maths.

As someone who has purchased a lot of math and physics textbooks to educate myself, I find the most important thing is to have a writing style that feels personable and not robotic. This textbook is great with it, and is so much better for it. It has a goal of being a brief introduction to the topic and provides a TON of resources to learn more, so to that end is accomplishes the task well. My one complaint is that many sections feel a little hand wavey and like you’re not walked through them as easily. I’d really appreciate a larger textbook that explained these sections a bit more, particularly perturbation techniques and alternative formulations.