![]() ![]() But if you absolutely cannot wait, by all means read the Afterword immediately following Chapter 1. I do not believe one can intelligently discuss what quantum mechanics means until one has a firm sense of what quantum mechanics does. Apart from some essential background in Chapter 1, the deeper quasiphilosophical questions are saved for the end. ![]() The purpose of this book is to teach you how to do quantum mechanics. Niels Bohr said, "If you are not confused by quantum physics then you haven't really understood it" Richard Feynman remarked, "I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics." There is no general consensus as to what its fundamental principles are, how it should be taught, or what it really "means." Every competent physicist can "do" quantum mechanics, but the stories we tell ourselves about what we are doing are as various as the tales of Scheherazade, and almost as implausible. Unlike Newton's mechanics, or Maxwell's electrodynamics, or Einstein's relativity, quantum theory was not created-or even definitively packaged-by one individual, and it retains to this day some of the scars of its exhilarating but traumatic youth. ![]()
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