Talk:This Quantum World

Will this book be at university level? If so, should it be linked into the Modern Physics section and integrated with the Quantum Mechanics book? (See how the Special Relativity book is linked in the Modern Physics section) RobinH 12:44, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

As I said here, I teach an introductory course of contemporary physics to high-school students (grades 11-12) and undergraduates at the SAICE in Puducherry, India. As I am in the process of preparing my handouts for the next term (starting tomorrow), I thought it might be a good idea to make them more widely available. While our students enjoy an unusual freedom to choose their projects and courses, we teachers are free to offer subjects of our own choosing and are encouraged to explore new methods of teaching. My course is therefore optional and to some extent experimental. (I do understand that there is no such thing as "my Wikibook", though.) To the bona fide student of physics it offers a perspective that is complementary to those of many excellent textbooks, but this Wikibook aims to be more widely accessible, and it is not meant as a substitute for or to compete with standard texts. Its orientation is more philosophical. While it covers the necessary math and explains its use, the aim is not to impart the technical skills of a physicist. Integration into the Quantum Mechanics book is therefore not advisable; the approaches have different goals and (as I said) are complementary. --Koantum 14:38, 15 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Many parts of your treatment are excellent and not idiosyncratic except in clarity. For the present I have put a link to this book in the Modern Physics QM section. RobinH 10:08, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Congratulations. This looks like a promising beginning of a very fine textbook on the topic (at least as far as I can tell from my limited knowldge): all changes are well-motivated, formulae form the back of the reasoning, while not pushing themselves too much in front. Small annotations on history are intermangled with the main text in a sensble way. As a beginner in quantum mechanics, I believe your text is didactically great. The only point of criticism I want to add here is your introduction of "the two rules", wich seem to come somewhat "out of the blue". All in all, I think this is the (beginning of) a great book, and I'm thinking about translating it to german. Just as an indication how developed your book already is: what topics do you intend to cover? Sorry, the above unsigned post was by me --Tom Bachmann 14:36, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your encouragement! This year I have two batches of very young students, even some bright ones from grade 10, so at present I concentrate on preliminaries, which in this book go into the appendix. I have just added something on probability, and next on the list is the math that we will need. With the college students whom I have taught in the past few years I have covered quite a lot of subjects, up to the basics of relativistic quantum field theory. As for those two rules: they are essentially the fundamental postulates of Feynman's approach — see my blog entry on the subject. They make it possible to discuss many experimental situations with very little mathematical ado. I have, however, added a clause saying that later we will think about where they come from. In fact, we are going to derive them. You can get a sneak preview in my paper preposterously entitled Quantum Mechanics Explained.--Koantum 02:45, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
 * This sounds like your book will get interesting and understandable. Do you think it is sane to translate it simultaneously to you writing it? --Tom Bachmann 14:07, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Nothing insane about it. Only one caveat: pages won't be added in their final order but rather haphazardly. Quantum jumps!--Koantum 08:22, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Printable / PDF version
I'd love to see a printable / PDF version made. I see it's been duly marked. Anyone willing to take the time? 134.129.68.7 16:42, 14 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I will happily make a printable version and maybe a pdf version --Anonymous101 (talk) 19:26, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I think I've finished the printable version. Beginning work on PDF. Glich (talk) 23:54, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
 * well?--217.76.95.24 (talk) 23:29, 1 July 2009 (UTC)


 * haha ok ok I'll do some more on it. The actual book needs to be sorted before a pdf is made. Glich (talk) 18:52, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
 * ok, this is going quite well right now. I want to try to get a odt file of the book up so that people can improve the style themselves. This can then be used as a template for other books. Does such a template exist already? It would be nice to standardise this. Glich (talk) 13:36, 2 September 2010 (UTC)


 * The first version of the pdf has been completed. I don't know how to upload it to wikicommons. The version can be found here for now: https://sites.google.com/site/glichglich/home/files

Please upload this pdf. An odt file is also included. Glich (talk) 18:24, 4 September 2010 (UTC)

Title?
Should this be moved to This Quantum World? Geoff Plourde (talk) 16:20, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

What is meant by "Serious illnesses require drastic remedies"?
? This is a great book btw, thank you!Popish Plot (discuss • contribs) 18:36, 7 April 2015 (UTC)