January 6, 2014
Considered volume II in Susskind’s “Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics” series (volume I covered classical mechanics), the authors offer highly motivated readers an introduction to the advanced mathematics needed to study quantum mechanics. As Susskind, a professor of theoretical physics at Stanford, and Friedman, a student of his physics lectures, explain, quantum mechanics requires us to rewire “our intuitions with abstract mathematics.” The book presents some basic quantum mechanical concepts, like spin and qubits, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, entanglement, wave functions, and Schrödinger’s Equation, but most of the text focuses on mathematics, from Boolean logic and statistics to vectors, matrices, and path integrals. The authors mean for this book to be “fully accessible to mathematically literate nonphysicists,” and it’s clear that those without a college-level grounding in math will find it difficult going. As it stands, the book will work well as a companion text for university students studying quantum mechanics or the armchair physicists following Susskind’s YouTube lectures. B&w illus. Agent: Katinka Matson, Brockman, Inc.