Quantum Mechanics Tutorial: Introduction.

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The birth of quantum mechanics

is generally dated to the year 1900, when Max Planck presented his ideas about electromagnetic waves that lead to the relation E = h· with a constant factor h. Although Johann Jakob Balmer had discovered mathematical relations for the spectral lines of hydrogen already in 1884, it was Planck's discovery that energy and frequency are proportional to each other, which initiated a new line of physics in the following years. Prominent contributors to this new physics were Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Louis de Broglie. The development reached a culmination point in 1926 and 1927 in the form of the matrix mechanics and the uncertainty principle by Werner Heisenberg, the wave mechanics by Erwin Schrödinger, and the statistical interpretation by Max Born. This new physics could explain all experimental observations in a common framework called "quantum mechanics", which lead the foundation for future developments in a number of fields, from particle physics to quantum chemistry and from mathematics to philosophy.

Quantum mechanics therefore

can be taught in a number of different ways. The author of this tutorial has some 14 years of experience in presenting a basic course in physical chemistry. This tutorial is an attempt to transpond this experience to modern means of communication. However, a warning seems to be appropriate:

Web pages allow a different form of presentation than traditional text books, by including cross references that can be followed immediately, links to external sites, animated graphics, etc. Advantages and disadvantages keep a balance, though. Disadvantages start with the fact that a computer is required and that readability on a computer screen is not as good as on paper. Mathematical equations are usually rendered poorly by web browsers, whereas function graphs can be displayed directly off the mathematical formula - a feature that is frequently used in this tutorial.