4 ms·
For me the best way is to forget the physical motivations and the historical development during first encounter, I know it is controversial but it helps you to
by cambalache 7y ago
For me the best way is to forget the physical motivations and the historical development during first encounter, I know it is controversial but it helps you to starts calculating fast and not get boggled in philosophical stuff. Take everything "on faith" then after you know how to work with the mathematical machinery, go back and study a different book, based on the historical development and with more physical intuition.
- whatshisface 7y agoThe list of prerequisites isn't really the historical motivation, in fact is almost impossible to find the historical perspective in textbooks. It's secretly a way of teaching math and concepts to students who do not already know them. If you already know all of the necessary math you can come in "sideways" like you are describing, and it is not that controversial. Granted you will have no idea about what's going on if you don't understand Newton's laws and friends.
- cambalache 7y agoPlenty of books dedicate the first parts of the course to the experimental evidence of the need of a new theory, namely:the ultraviolet catastrophe of the blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, the unexplained stability of the electron position in an atom among others. From there you introduce, the Planck constant, the quantum of light concept, the de Broglie particle-wave duality and the Schrodinger equation and off you go. It is a pretty standard approach. As per the study of QM as a mathematical probabilistic theory you dont need Newtons Laws at all. The 5,6 postulates are pretty standard, and you take the position operator and the Hamiltonian definitions as part of them , no need to relate them to classical counterparts, at least until you prove the Ehrenfest theorem.