Understanding Quantum Mechanics: A Theoretical Minimum Introduction

Antibunching: Very entertaining book - like every single lecture Prof. Susskind has posted on youtube. It gives an excellent conceptual overview particularly for first time learners, or non-physics students who want to understand what QM is all about, without investing years of study. I very much like the entire series - and recommend to first read the mechanics book by Susskind. The QM book only requires very little linear algebra knowledge, thus making it accessible to a broad audience. Just don’t expect you are able to carry out analytical QM to solve problems towards a BS or MS degree. For that there is probably no way around „full size“ intro to QM textbooks like those by R. Liboff or J.J. Sakurai (or B. Zwiebach youtube lecture series). In any case Susskind‘s book series is unique, simplistic but deep, and a must read for any physicist, upcoming quantum engineers, or in fact anyone who likes to listen to and get inspired by brilliant minds.

United States on Dec 12, 2023

Trantor: El gramaje del papel es bajo, la portada es delgada, creo que podria mejorarse la calidad un poco en cuanto al material, la calidad de impresión es buena y por el tamaño de letra es facil de leer, tuve mala suerte y no venia emplayado entonces llego con manchas de suciedad por la manipulación que le dieron

Mexico on Nov 19, 2023

PK SinghPK Singh: I have been reading the book for quite a while now and totally impressed at how fluently the ideas are conveyed. It feels as if you are on journey along with the author while exploring the forest of quantum world. Totally worth giving a try. I am excited for the special and general relativity parts. Will order them once I finish this one

India on Sep 11, 2023

LM: The book begins with simple and accessible language and increases in difficulty according to the theme, without ever losing clarity. In it, many scholars find new themes of mathematics and physics to be studied. The book together with the course that Professor Leonard Susskind and Stanford University make available for free on YouTube (in English) is enough to begin to understand the immensity of this theme that is applied to everything we use in our day to day, both in electronics as in medicine. Anyone who thinks that Quantum Mechanics is only theoretical is wrong. So, don't think twice, buy the book and watch the 10 classes of 2 hours each on YouTube for free and start understanding more advanced books on the subject.

Brazil on Jul 17, 2023

louis Corsi: très bien

France on Jul 06, 2023

Cliente Amazon: Una excelente y peculiar introducción a la mecánica cuántica, con la participación de Leonard Susskind, uno de los padres de la teoría de cuerdas.
El texto es relativamente sencillo, pero riguroso. Hay que tener en cuenta de que libro va dirigido a personas que tengan una cierta formación científica-matemática. Yo diría como mínimo un estudiante de ciencias (física, química, matemáticas) de 2º curso.
Se necesita también cierto nivel de inglés. Aunque este libro está traducido, yo la que tengo es la versión en el idioma original. Desconozco si la versión traducida al castellano es buena o no.
Las lecciones vienen con bastantes ejercicios, que no vienen resueltos en el libro, aunque hay un página web con las soluciones donde se pueden comprobar los resultados. No recuerdo la dirección de la página ahora, pero no es difícil encontrar.

Spain on Jul 03, 2023

Malcolm Cameron: Physics lectures are of three types according to this anecdote of Niels Bohr:

“A young man was sent by his own village to a neighboring town to hear a great Rabbi. He was to bring back a report in which all could share. When he returned he told his eagerly awaiting fellow citizens: “The Rabbi spoke three times. The first was brilliant; clear and simple. I understood every word. The second was even better, deep and subtle. I didn’t understand much, but the Rabbi understood it all. The third was by far the finest; a great and unforgettable experience. I understood nothing and the Rabbi himself didn’t understand much either.”

Professor Susskind (1) of Stanford University is far ahead of Bohr’s Rabbi – he understands it all. To Susskind “Everything is easy in Quantum mechanics” (2). So easy that he always “destroys his lecture notes to prevent his lectures being the same next time” (3).

“Given enough time, with no distractions, you could use [his book (4)] to eventually master Quantum Mechanics” (5). An attractive challenge as the book is only 350 pages.

Only 350 pages perhaps, but it assumes you are versed in Classical Mechanics...

United States on May 23, 2016

J. Canada: I've been working through this book. I learned quantum in my undergrad years from the Tannoudji book. It was very dry and I spend most my time trying to figure out what he (Tannoudji) was trying to say, THEN figure out whether I can prove it, etc. Funny how really smart people can create creatively new ways to make stuff more difficult through weird explanations.

This is not so with Susskind. Susskind writes like Feynman: clear explanations on complex topics. I assume he's a native english speaker, as his tone is very colloquial and uninimtidating. He assumes the reader knows nothing of quantum and explains things in bit-sized pieces which are easy to digest. He rarely says things like "well OBVIOUSLY this flows from this" (when the things are so obvious).

Anyways, the book is a bit unorthodox. It starts off talking about spin states and vector spaces. This is different than the typical quantum books that start off with talking about solving the Schrodinger equation. Which, now that I think about it, isn't really a great place to start. It's a wave equation that's only once-piece of the bigger picture.

The result is a book that has a very gradual learning...

United States on Mar 30, 2015