Math Academy, part 1: My eigenvector embarassment

Re:Math Academy, part 1: My eigenvector embarassment by beezle on Friday February 21, 2025 @08:31PM (#43135186)

I was a double major, one in physics, in the 80s. After the three semester engineering physics classes, intro QM was taught spring sophomore year. We used Liboff. In addition, it was required for all physics, chem and engineering majors to take math 20(5?) which was linear algebra.

And given that most of basic QM was formalized by 1930 and relies upon eigenvectors, hard to see any physics course taught since that time not having it.

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Re:Math Academy, part 1: My eigenvector embarassment by FranklinChen on Friday February 21, 2025 @10:16PM (#43135750)

Whoa, Liboff, that book... I only vaguely remember it now (took QM in 1988). I took "math for mathematicians" (Math 25) instead of "math for physicists" (Math 22?), but remember my classmates who took first year "math for physicists" got eigenvectors very quickly right off the bat in the pre-published book they used https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/course-in-mathematics-f...

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