Basic Concepts in Quantum Mechanics

by A.S. Kompaneyets, L.F. Landovitz (Translator)

160 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 1966

Reviews

[Thomas Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aimed at explaining broadly quantum mechanics to those with a university education in classical physics.

... that tests (educational, not physical) show that 90 percent of the difficulty in understanding the concepts of quantum mechanics arise from an insufficient grasp of elementary laws of mechanics, and only 10 percent is connected with the new ideas.

Quantum mechanics is a continuation of classical mechanics. This does not mean of course that it could be logically deduced from Newton's laws of motion. An element of conjecture must always exist in the creation of new theories. Thus, 3 years before the diffraction of electrons was demonstrated experimentally, Louis de Broglie proposed that the motion of electrons should exhibit wave properties. Developing de Broglie's idea, Schrödinger obtained an equation for the wave function and thus created the mathematical apparatus of quantum mechanics. Working completely independently, Heisenberg found another, equally valuable form of quantum mechanics. Only later was direct experimental confirmation obtained. This does not mean that de Broglie, Schrödinger and Heisenberg had no experimental basis for their work. On the contrary, an enormous quantity of experimental material had already been accumulated that could not be explained by classical theory.