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

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.

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.

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.