Introduction to Quantum theory

[abskebabs]

Hi everybody. I guess I just feel like I should make a contribution to this website, and now I have such an oppurtunity; and have attached a piece of work to this thread.

 

I did this coursework a while back called an "Introduction to Quantum theory", where I covered and eleaborated on the initial steps covered in the development of the theory and its logical origins. I would not say this is an excellent piece of work, but as I have received my A level results; I feel no inhibitions about posting this now(I was a little concerned if the exam board would raise a word or too).

 

I hope this helps anyone interested in the subject, and I apologise in advance if it is a little hard to follow at times. I had to limit the essay to 4000 words(though I did exceed that slightly), and I could not cover as much as initially wanted to. I also don't think I was competent enough to cover more than the first 20 years of QT.

 

I hope you like it!

Introduction to Quantum theory.doc

[whap2005]

This is great. Thanks for posting it!

[abskebabs]

I'm glad you liked it:-) . I was hoping a few more ppl would have looked at it by now and given me some feedback by now tho....

[ajb]

Not everyone uses Microsoft Word. You are always better off writting things in formats that everyone can read. I would suggest PDF or PS.

[abskebabs]

Not everyone uses Microsoft Word. You are always better off writting things in formats that everyone can read. I would suggest PDF or PS.

I understand that and I did originally try doing this work using latex and by making a PDF. I found it quite hard to use though and didnt have time to learn how to use it properly; thereby I decided to use Ms Word and mathtype to do this work as I was more accustomed to using them.

 

It's interesting you say this, as I do not have Ms Word installed on the labtop I am currently using so I cannot view my own work either!

[Martin]

I got it to print on my Mac.

It is a sharp piece of work.

 

If anybody hasnt looked already. Abs took care to get a lot of clear wellchosen diagrams to illustrate stuff---so the essay comes across visually. You have an image for everything he is talking about.

 

and in the text he seems to focus on stuff that he understands pretty well and can explain cogently. that way it can be clear and not have a lot of vague handwaving. which is a real plus.

 

what I was able to print out was 16 pages that cover the early years when people confronted the hard evidence that forced them to invent QM---so you talk about blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect, and the hydrogen spectrum.

 

BTW, on the subject of SFN people contributing clear visual presentations of physics----on a different level (post-graduate specialized particle physics) Severian did this very clear set of lecture notes, or slides, which is an "Introduction to quantum field theory" IIRC (if I remember correctly).

It has been a while. but at one point we had a link to it here. My impression was it is very good as an exposition of the subject.

It makes things as simple as possible, but unfortunately (one must admit) that is still not exactly what you'd call easy! One of these days i'll find the link, or some similar learning material, and post it.

[Klaynos]

Here have a pdf...

Introduction to Quantum theory.pdf

[abskebabs]

Here have a pdf...

that's really cool:-) ! How did u do that?

[Klaynos]

that's really cool:-) ! How did u do that?

 

I opened it in openoffice.org a free (in both senses of the word), open source office suite, and just hit the pdf button, it then just gives me a save box and saves a pdf... OOo also has a far supirour equation editing thing once you get used to it...

 

[Severian]

I find using openoffice to convert to pdf always seems to make minor formatting mistakes. I have yet to find a good way of converting PowerPoint to pdf either (which would be really useful).

[bascule]

I find using openoffice to convert to pdf always seems to make minor formatting mistakes. I have yet to find a good way of converting PowerPoint to pdf either (which would be really useful).

 

Try PDF Redirect. I've found it works better with Office than Adobe Acrobat Distiller even (or Adobe PDFWriter). We tested out several of these at my last job when we needed to create PDFs of various scientific papers and presentations, and this was the one that worked the best.

 

It's also great for producing small PDFs from Microsoft Word documents.

 

The majority of papers my research group put out before were done in Word with only the boss's papers done in LaTeX. Why would scientists waste their time learning LaTeX when they can just write their papers with Word and MathType?

[Severian]

Because LaTeX is much much easier to write equations with. Even in PowerPoint, I write my equations using LaTeX via TeXPoint.

 

Thanks for the pdf tip. I will try it out.

[ajb]

LateX once you learn how to use it is much easier than Word. It is simply better than using Word for mathematics. There are loads of packages that give you more symbols, diagrams etc...

 

Word has a habit of changing the format and moving things about. LaTex will do exactly what you tell it.

 

Also, it is free. LateX and Adobe Reader are free. You don't have to sign up to the Microsoft monopoly and you don't force others to do so. (You could of course use Open Office!)