Wave Mechanics: Volume 5 of Pauli Lectures on Physics Volume 5

by Wolfgang Pauli

Book Overview

In the 1950s, the distinguished theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli delivered a landmark series of lectures at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. His comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of classical and modern physics was painstakingly recorded not only by his students, but also by a number of collaborators whose carefully edited transcriptions resulted in a remarkable six-volume work.
This volume, the fifth in the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486414620
• ISBN13: 9780486414621
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Never knew these lectures were SO good

Ok - so I'd seen these books during my physics graduate school career - but for some reason never picked them up (too short, too concise...not sure what my problem was)! If I wanted good lectures - I referred to Feynman - and a few other odds and ends. Recently - I got my hands on the 'Wave Mechanics' lectures by Pauli. Two things struck me about this wonderful exposition 1) Concise clarity - unlike any other book (and I am including Feynman lectures - what Feynman takes 50 pages to convey - Pauli conveys in 5). 2) Mathematical formalism that is easy to understand. Again - unlike Feynman who leaves out bulk of the mathematics for the 'physical understanding'. This is not a critique of Feynman - just that Pauli's lectures excel in BOTH areas - the mathematical as well as the physical formalism.

Lectures by a great master

Pauli was one of the great physicists of the 20th century. He invented neutrinos, for instance. The Pauli principle explains the Periodic Table and the rigidity of matter. These lectures on quantum mechanics are not the famous Handbuch article which was, for many years, a main reference on QM. These are notes taken by his students (and carefully edited by senior physicists, such as Charles Enz)at his classes. They are much more accessible, being meant for students. Being quite compact, I woulnd't say they are adequate for standard beginning students. They are, however, perfect for clarifying subtle points and have an exquisite elegance, in their simplicity. A friend of mine, an eminent experimentalist, considered it "his bible". An interesting exercise in style is comparing these lectures with the analogous ones by Fermi, in his Chicago lectures. Who wins? My favorite is Fermi's. But it is a close match.