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Meridannight, how did your QM course go?
#1
I was looking through old-ish threads and I saw you made a thread about doing a course on quantum mechanics but the thread was locked so I couldn't reply. But I was interested to see what stuff you covered / what approach was taken.

In the first year of my degree course, I did a bit of introductory QM, where we looked at the issues in physics that led to quantum theory - the ultraviolet catastrophe, the photoelectric effect and atomic spectra. Then we went through the developments leading up to the time-independent Schrodinger equation and solved it for simple situations. In second year, we did a course on QM which was basically the same thing, starting from the ultraviolet catastrophe and eventually arriving at the the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Finding the uncertainty relation using the maths of wave packets (delta k . delta x has a minimum of 1, for a Gaussian wavepacket). Then we were just solving the Schrodinger equation in different situations - infinite potential wells, finite potential wells, potential barriers, hydrogen atom and quantum numbers. The Pauli exclusion principle. Then we did some statistical mechanics and showed that quantum effects gave a more realistic solution to the energy spectrum for a black body.

This year, I did a more mathematical QM course with state vectors and observables in a Hilbert space. We started with the postulates, then on to spin-half systems. Then, we just solved the Schrodinger equation for simple potentials, e.g. infinite potential wells, harmonic potentials. Then, we did angular momentum and demonstrated that spin in a form of intrinsic angular momentum. We finished with time-independent perturbation theory. Having done QM before, I found it interesting but, as a mathematical rather than physical course, there wasn't much actual physics involved - you could solve the problems without thinking of them as real physical situations. It was more about becoming fluent in the formalism rather than solving physical problems.
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#2
i had to drop out of that course, unfortunately. i was taking a couple of courses on neuroscience at the same time back then, and i couldn't manage all of them at the same time. i had to choose, and i chose to finish neuroscience (which went very well). QM is fascinating to me, but i am, at this point in life, more focused on studying neuroscience.

i still have all the QM lectures on my computer. and they might re-offer that same course again some time. i'll watch those lectures at one point sooner or later.
''Do I look civilized to you?''
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