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More than four decades ago, I took #quantum mechanics as an undergraduate #EE student, as a required course on semiconductors. We used a then-popular #physics textbook on the subject—"Solid State and Semiconductor Physics" by McKelvey. Suffice it to say, this physics textbook wasn't ideal for #engineering students.
Today, I came across Prof. #Dommelen's free textbook, "Quantum Mechanics for Engineers", in all its 1600-page glory. And I'm loving it!
https://web1.eng.famu.fsu.edu/~dommelen/quantum/pdf/index.pdf
@AmenZwa @ChuckMcManis Boy, this looks really good! Sadly, I can’t imagine ever having the time to give it the attention it would require.
@bitsplusatoms @ChuckMcManis This book is certainly thick by STEM textbook standard, but it's about average for a law casebook. And the subject matter demands that level of detail. I'm simply delighted that someone poured out that much attention, dedication, and adoration, all for free.
@AmenZwa @ChuckMcManis Agreed. It is a real gift.
@bitsplusatoms @AmenZwa One has a surprising amount of 'time' if you focus (which for me staying on one topic is hardest). I started looking through it and comparing some of its discussion to my 'modern physics' (Harris) text book. I'd say Dommelen is more conversational.
Reminds me again that the thing everyone assumes is constant (the passage of time) is the one thing that isn't. 
@ChuckMcManis @AmenZwa You’re right of course. I suppose I should have said that I’ve already overallocated my time to pursuits to which I give higher priority.
The world is filled with so many interesting topics. I never understand my friends who worry about being bored in retirement.
There’s a line in a book that I think of often: “My shoulders strain under the weight of all the lives I will not live.”
@bitsplusatoms @AmenZwa Amen. I've tell my retired friends, if you're bored you are doing it wrong 
@AmenZwa What puzzles me in this kind of books is that the authors never ask themselves why the physicians asked the question in the first place. But there is a story. The idea didn't just pop into their heads. And telling the story is important to understand the matter.
For Fourier it is the same problem.
Obviously if you go into detail about the evolution of these ideas, it is impossible to tell. But there must be a means of expleaning that these ideas didn't just appear out of nowhere.
@AmenZwa But again p-adic it is not possible. It would be such a detour where the p-adic number comes from that again it's not possible.
P-adic numbers have beeen designed by analogy with complex analysis. Either you know complex analysis and one can suggest the analogy, or you don't know it and one must renounce to explain the origin of p(adic numbers.
Nevertheless p-adic numbers are useful even if you don't know anything to complex analysis.
@fl If you mean by "this kind of books" the "engineering textbooks", then you are spot on; most of them never go into the motivation, inception, development, and other historical and philosophical context.
And a good call on complex analysis. Engineering undergrads aren't required to take complex analysis, but dive straight into complex vector spaces, not even EEs! But any EE grad who chooses to work in E&M (radar, optics, etc.) or DSP would have no choice but to learn, on his own, complex analysis and related subjects.
One aspect of engineering that physicists would consider "weak" is that during our early education, we are not required to explore beyond the "application" of the theory. Some do, of course. But upon entering our respective practice areas, each of us, by necessity, would have to delve into the theoretical "foundations" of the area, and educate ourselves further. I think it has to do what the quantity of information that had to be packed into just four years.
Imagine that you are, today, the dean of a typical engineering college, and you have to construct, from the ground up, an "electronic engineering undergraduate curriculum" with a focus on designing, testing, and manufacturing of vector processing hardware, so that your college can pump out the next generation of AI hardware designers. What topics would you teach the kids in their final year to ready them for the industry, how would you support the underlying requirements of that year's courses in the prior three years, and how what level of theoretical background would you give them so that they could teach themselves once they are in the industry?
Boy, that's one tough job. I'm glad I'm no longer in academia.
@AmenZwa It depends on the matter I would say. Some are easier to understand than others. But for quantum mechanics, you can't avoid recalling the experiments that were not explainable in Newtonian physics, why they were not explainable and why quantum physics solve the problem.
Maybe not in class hours. Maybe in a textbook. The anglo-saxon tradition seems to use more textbooks than the French one and in my opinion it's better. You are less dependant on a small number of class hours..
@fl Very well said; I agree. Fortunately, quantum is one of those few areas where history and philosophy is introduced first in EE undergrad, albeit more shallowly compared to physicists undergrad. If you read that 1966 textbook that I used back in the day, you'd see, first, that it was written by a bona fide physicist, not an EE). And my professor was a physicist, not an EE. I can't say anything about today's EE undergrad, since I've been away from it for more than 40ys.