PHYS 5383 Overview

Spring 2012

Last edit: 16 Jan 2012

Welcome to PHYS 5383. Acquiring a non-trivial understanding of the quantum mechanics is a significant cultural achievement and something you should take pride in. Quantum mechanics is humanity's deepest understanding of the physical universe. Correspondingly, it is difficult to learn because, aside from its own technical jargon and mathematical formalism, it requires you to develop a new kind of physical intuition. So, if you get a bit discouraged at times, do not think it is just you. Quantum mechanics is challenging for everyone.

Homework is issued more or less weekly and is graded. I encourage you to work together on the problems. However, the final write-up must be your own work. Submitted homework assignments that are suspiciously similar will annoy me. There will be 3 regular tests as well as a final exam. See the PHYS 5383 syllabus for details.

Your final grade will be based on a weighted sum of your performance on homework, tests and the final exam. Individual assignments do not receive a letter grade. You should see me personally to know how you are doing in the course. A stellar performance on the final exam can result in a course grade much better then the average course performance would yield. The relative course component weights used to determine the course grade are:


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