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quantum mechanics.
University since 1978. He is the author (with George know how physicists really think about the world, this book is the place to start.” m
Hrabovsky) of The Theoretical Minimum, as well as The Black Hole —Sean Carroll, physicist, California Institute of Technology, and W hat You Need to Know to In this follow-up to The Theoretical Minimum, Susskind and LH
Friedman provide a lively introduction to this famously
War and The Cosmic Landscape. He lives in Palo Alto, California.
author of The Particle at the End of the Universe
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kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace. mylar
$26.99 US / $30.00 CAN
ISBN 978-0-465-03667-7
52699 & art friedman
Jacket design by Nicole Caputo A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Jacket photograph by Rick Schwab www.basicbooks.com
9 780465 036677
This book is the second volume of the Theoretical Minimum series.
The first volume, The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know
to Start Doing Physics, covered classical mechanics, which is the core
of any physics education. We will refer to it from time to time simply
as Volume I. This second book explains quantum mechanics and its re-
lationship to classical mechanics. The books in this series run parallel
to Leonard Susskind’s videos, available on the Web through Stanford
University (see www.theoreticalminimum.com for a listing). While cov-
ering the same general topics as the videos, the books contain additional
details, and topics that don’t appear in the videos.
QUANTUM
MECHANICS
Also by Leonard Susskind
The Theoretical Minimum
What You Need To Know to Start Doing Physics
(with George Hrabovsky)
The Black Hole War
The Cosmic Landscape
QUANTUM
MECHANICS
The Theoretical Minimum
LEONARD SUSSKIND
and ART FRIEDMAN
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
Copyright © 2014 by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information,
address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107–1307.
Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases
in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more
information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books
Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810–
4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com.
Designed by Art Friedman and Leonard Susskind
Hilbert’s Place drawings were created by Margaret Sloan.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-465-03667-7
ISBN (ebook): 978-0-465-08061-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For our parents,
who made it all possible:
Irene and Benjamin Susskind
George and Trudy Friedman
Contents
Preface xi
Prologue xv
Introduction xix
1 Systems and Experiments 1
2 Quantum States 35
3 Principles of Quantum Mechanics 51
4 Time and Change 93
5 Uncertainty and Time Dependence 129
6 Combining Systems: Entanglement 149
7 More on Entanglement 183
8 Particles and Waves 235
9 Particle Dynamics 273
10 The Harmonic Oscillator 311
Appendix 347
Index 353
