<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Aquired mathematical knowledge recommended
Review: This book is for those who already aquired some knowledge in mathematical analysis, linear algebra with vectors and some introduction in complex analysis. Roughly altogether about 15 University points.Because it's surely not teaching you key things like what limits, substitution, integrand (one page according to index), asymptotics and so on really are. That knowledge is expected of you to have. Instead the book gives a sort of enhanced recapitulation and expansion on topics and new insights on new topics as well; what these can be used for and how to use them. This is great because the reading goes intellectually much faster and get your attention right away with the stuff you already have a working knowledge of. The boxes are great; containing important definitions which then is accompanied with instant examples clearifying the definitions by proof or otherwise gives descriptive and explanatory content for a method or definition Hassani's book is also well written in terms of language use.
Rating:
Summary: A Lot has Changed
Review: When I took undergraduate quantum mechanics 30 years ago, we learned a lot about Louis deBroglie, Max Planck, the photoelectric effect, then moved into wave functions, the Schroedinger equation, simple one-dimensional potentials and the hydrogen atom. Maybe there was a little angular momentum tossed in. It was not until graduate school that I learned much about /X> = xi/x> where /X> is a vector in an n-dimensional, linearly independent vector space and the xi's were its components in the basis /x>. A lot of things like representations might have made more sense. Anyway, Hassani's undergraduate text gives one an excellent view of vectors and coordinate systems. In particular, it trains one well to leap into the more abstract view of vectors one reads about in, say, R. Shankar's excellent book on quantum mechanics, and also gives one a good deal of exercise on how to translate between coordinate systems. In graduate school, I found the ability to roam between coordinate systems to be very, very handy and the laborious time spent learning it was worth it. I'm not done with this book yet. I'm now getting into his chapters on complex variables and differential equations, but Hassani's treatment of vectors and coordinate systems is very good indeed. Undergraduate physics students who plan to go on into graduate school will find time with this book well spent.
<< 1 >>
| 
