Course Objective: Learn quantum mechanics, focusing on developing intuition rather than just calculations.
Course Structure
Instructors:
Recitation: Barton Zwiebach (experienced) and Matt Evans (new).
Teaching Assistant: Paolo Glorioso.
Course Materials: Everything will be available on the Stellar website - including notes, homework, exams, and grades.
Video Recording: Classes will be videotaped; students who prefer not to be recorded should sit at the sides.
Work Expectation and Policies
Problem Sets:
Due Tuesday by 11 AM in the physics box.
Late work not accepted, but the lowest score will be dropped.
Collaboration encouraged, but students must write up their own solutions.
Exams:
Two midterms, date to be announced.
One final exam.
Clickers will be used for participation questions and will contribute to the overall grade.
Students should register their clickers by next week.
Recommended Textbooks
No single required textbook; a list of recommended texts will be provided to cover different approaches (wave mechanics vs. matrix mechanics).
Class Culture
Students are encouraged to ask questions at any time during lectures or recitation sessions to ensure comprehension.
Questions from Students:
No late submissions allowed unless discussed ahead of time.
Videos of lectures will be available later on the OCW website.
Lecture Content: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
Philosophical Foundation
Discussing foundational ideas from David Albert's book: Quantum Mechanics and Experience.
Focus on peculiar properties of electrons:
Mysterious experiments involving color and hardness (2 binary properties).
Experimental Setup
Color Box: Measures whether electrons are black or white.
Hardness Box: Measures whether electrons are hard or soft.
Both properties must be measured independently, indicating they are uncorrelated.
Key Experiment: Color and Hardness Correlation
Send a set of electrons through a color box.
Measure outcomes of color and hardness using boxes.
Findings show no correlation: knowing one does not give information about the other.
Persistently measured properties reveal unpredictability and randomness of electron behavior, challenging traditional views.
If you measure the color, the hardness cannot be predicted.
Superposition Concept
Big Idea: Many outcomes cannot be attributed to specific paths or properties of electrons as they behave in ways unlike macroscopic objects.
Superposition: Electrons exist in a state where they can represent multiple outcomes simultaneously until measured.
Breaking down intuition developed from classical physics to embrace quantum mechanics.
Challenge: Develop a new intuition about quantum behavior over the course.
Conclusions on Nature of Electrons
Experiments lead to the conclusion that electrons are neither one path nor another but exist in a superposed state.
Fundamental properties of particles cannot be described in classical terms and require quantum language.
Summary of Key Concepts
Definitional Properties of Electrons: Color and hardness as non-correlated properties.
Experimental Observations: Challenge understanding of how particles behave; lead to the development of quantum mechanics concepts such as superposition.
Intuition Shift: Move from classical to quantum thinking for further understanding in the course.