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Italy12246 Posts
On January 24 2012 23:28 rei wrote: WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together.
Solve Shroedinger's equation for a particle in an infinite well of potential, with a Dirac delta of potential that can be put anywhere in the box. H=p^2/2m+v(x)+g*delta(x-a), where v(x) = 0 for 0
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what's H and what's p what's m and what's g and delta and what's x and a??? g is gravity? p=potential? power? v(x) is vector of particle x? what is this shit? what's a dirac delta of potential? and whos Shroedinger why did he have to come up with this equation?
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I thought I wanted to study physics but now I'm sad ;_; Good luck dude
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On January 24 2012 23:45 rei wrote: what's H and what's p what's m and what's g and delta and what's x and a??? g is gravity? p=potential? power? v(x) is vector of particle x? what is this shit? what's a dirac delta of potential? and whos Shroedinger why did he have to come up with this equation?
The only friend he had was this cat he kept trying to kill, so he tried to pass the time by doing maths instead.
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Italy12246 Posts
On January 24 2012 23:47 Latedi wrote: I thought I wanted to study physics but now I'm sad ;_; Good luck dude
It's actually awesome and interesting and amazing...just fucking hard sometimes. And thanks, i will need LOTS of luck
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I got my physics degree but couldn't pass again if I tried. And yes, it's unfair but not unexpected that the math is ridiculous. You're supposed to be learning independently at this point and spending your free time solving as many math problems as possible. Why we do this to ourselves or why any of us choose to be physicists considering the low pay... I'll never know.
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I took quantum mech in my 2nd year... oh the joy hahaha. I think I was okay with the materials for about 6 lectures (okay as in I don't 'completely understand' but I can still 'agree and follow'), then for some reason I slept through the 6th or 7th, then everything didn't make sense afterwards. Somehow managed to pass it, honestly I didn't know what the fuck I was writing down as solutions on my exam.
So yeah... just study it over and over, and write down whatever comes to your mind on paper...
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On January 25 2012 00:01 ~ava wrote: I got my physics degree but couldn't pass again if I tried. And yes, it's unfair but not unexpected that the math is ridiculous. You're supposed to be learning independently at this point and spending your free time solving as many math problems as possible. Why we do this to ourselves or why any of us choose to be physicists considering the low pay... I'll never know.
For science!
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Quantum physics is supposed to be like that.
Add one more to the many mysteries of life, and GL
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On January 24 2012 23:39 Teoita wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 23:28 rei wrote: WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together. Solve Shroedinger's equation for a particle in an infinite well of potential, with a Dirac delta of potential that can be put anywhere in the box. H=p^2/2m+v(x)+g*delta(x-a), where v(x) = 0 for 0<x<a, infninity anywhere else. g is a constant. I am certainly no genius of any description but this exercise seems pretty standard to me. Delta potentials are almost obligatory. I remember having single and double Delta potentials on the exercise sheets, didn't you have that? What part of the math involved is giving you a headache? I mean, Hilbert spaces and all that stuff is pretty abstract but for most of the calculations you don't need an indepth knowledge of Functional Analysis, just skip it.
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On January 25 2012 00:39 surfinbird1 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 23:39 Teoita wrote:On January 24 2012 23:28 rei wrote: WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together. Solve Shroedinger's equation for a particle in an infinite well of potential, with a Dirac delta of potential that can be put anywhere in the box. H=p^2/2m+v(x)+g*delta(x-a), where v(x) = 0 for 0<x<a, infninity anywhere else. g is a constant. I am certainly no genius of any description but this exercise seems pretty standard to me. Delta potentials are almost obligatory. I remember having single and double Delta potentials on the exercise sheets, didn't you have that? What part of the math involved is giving you a headache? I mean, Hilbert spaces and all that stuff is pretty abstract but for most of the calculations you don't need an indepth knowledge of Functional Analysis, just skip it.
Yeap pretty much this. It gets really interesting when you have an infinite series of Dirac potentials (simulates a Crystalline structure). Though the solution that it spits out is also a series, it can get pretty difficult.
For this you pretty much just solve as normal taking special care of matching the boundary conditions on either side of the Dirac potential. You need to integrate across the boundary to eliminate the Dirac and get something useable.
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Finished my harder (quantum, mainly) third year physics last year, I'm just happy that I managed a score above 50%, considering most of the class failed the tests through the year... Just aim for a pass, and try to understand the basic fundamentals. Most of quantum is solving for eigenvalues, functions etc, so I would make damn sure you can do at least that basic math, before you try to tackle schrodinger and others equations. Don't even get me started on the probabilistic functions that are used - NOT FUN!
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Italy12246 Posts
On January 25 2012 00:39 surfinbird1 wrote:Show nested quote +On January 24 2012 23:39 Teoita wrote:On January 24 2012 23:28 rei wrote: WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together. Solve Shroedinger's equation for a particle in an infinite well of potential, with a Dirac delta of potential that can be put anywhere in the box. H=p^2/2m+v(x)+g*delta(x-a), where v(x) = 0 for 0 I am certainly no genius of any description but this exercise seems pretty standard to me. Delta potentials are almost obligatory. I remember having single and double Delta potentials on the exercise sheets, didn't you have that? What part of the math involved is giving you a headache? I mean, Hilbert spaces and all that stuff is pretty abstract but for most of the calculations you don't need an indepth knowledge of Functional Analysis, just skip it. It's pretty messy if the delta can be put where you damn well please inside the potential well. If it's in the middle then the even eigenfunctions are untouched and the odd ones get a phase because the first derivative is not continous (if i recall correctly, i did this 6 months ago). If it's anywhere in the well, calculating the exact eigenfunctions is annoying as hell. The fun part is when i have to calculate the Laplace operator for an n-dimensional space in spherical coordinates. Why would you even ask such a thing is beyond me...
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Good thing I'm neither a Physics or Mathematics major, I remember taking Physics at A levels and absolutely dreading every Quantum Mechanics lecture and tutorial. Despite an earlier interest in Shroedinger's experiment, I just couldn't handle the level of math that was involved, nor would I have understood why the answer had to be that way. I just gave up, skipped the whole topic all together for my A levels and concentrated more on the stuff that I could do.
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On January 24 2012 22:03 Teoita wrote: Plenty of completely insane math steps that NONE has ever taught me, in ANY class i have taken so far, wierd assumptions and tricks that you NEED to know to keep any kind of mental sanity...it's like, every problem is it's own insane shitstorm with a random trick to avoid insane shit, and every time the trick is different, makes no sense, and assumes math i don't know.
This is exactly how I felt about a year ago!
I was a first year grad student (engineering) and came from an undergrad program that did not adequately prepare me. There were a lot of tricks that completely bowled me over. I managed to catch myself up, but not in time to save my grades. I needed a 3.2 to remain in the PhD program and I earned a 3.17. But that's ok. I learned more in those 9 months than most of my classmates did. Now I'm a second year masters student who is slowly picking up the tips and tricks that I should know in the future.
Overall, it's positive that you don't know or understand something. This gives you a lot of room for growth. This is WHY you're in school! This stuff is hard, but try and keep your head up and do your best.
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*has a peek in this thread
notices the word "physics"
runs the fuck away
never looks back!*
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I'm so glad my university's Modern Physics class was so watered down. It was a long time ago so I don't remember exactly why it was, I think it was designed specifically for non-Physics majors to take. They still required differential equations etc but somehow they made assumptions or something that made it not require too many different tricks. So the math required wasn't too horrible. From the simplifications they made I can imagine that the full-blown versions of those problems would have been quite terrifying!
There's nothing worse than trying to follow a mathematical procedure where they assume you know how to do a certain technique and just say "using blah blah technique, equations (1) and (2) obviously lead to equation (3)". I had this happen when I was reading a paper and trying to apply it to a different situation. Even after reading about the technique they used on Wikipedia (obv, where else? hah!), I gave up on it 3-4 times before a couple weeks later I tried again and finally got it.
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On January 25 2012 00:48 Teoita wrote:Show nested quote +On January 25 2012 00:39 surfinbird1 wrote:On January 24 2012 23:39 Teoita wrote:On January 24 2012 23:28 rei wrote: WTF i want to see some of these shit storm, Give us and example so we can all feel stupid together. Solve Shroedinger's equation for a particle in an infinite well of potential, with a Dirac delta of potential that can be put anywhere in the box. H=p^2/2m+v(x)+g*delta(x-a), where v(x) = 0 for 0<x<a, infninity anywhere else. g is a constant. I am certainly no genius of any description but this exercise seems pretty standard to me. Delta potentials are almost obligatory. I remember having single and double Delta potentials on the exercise sheets, didn't you have that? What part of the math involved is giving you a headache? I mean, Hilbert spaces and all that stuff is pretty abstract but for most of the calculations you don't need an indepth knowledge of Functional Analysis, just skip it. It's pretty messy if the delta can be put where you damn well please inside the potential well. If it's in the middle then the even eigenfunctions are untouched and the odd ones get a phase because the first derivative is not continous (if i recall correctly, i did this 6 months ago). If it's anywhere in the well, calculating the exact eigenfunctions is annoying as hell. The fun part is when i have to calculate the Laplace operator for an n-dimensional space in spherical coordinates. Why would you even ask such a thing is beyond me... It's true, Delta distributions are no fun sometimes And the Laplace oprator in n-dimensions is indeed quite mysterious. I have never come across that. Especially in an introduction to QM it seems totally out of place. I remember QM as the lecture in theoretical physics where it made click for me. Just keep on pushing, man. QM can be a ton of fun, actually. Good luck.
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In uni whenever I faced a difficult problem like yours, I asked for help from fellow students, the professor or his assistant[s]. Only one time I had to take private lessons, because none of the above worked. Try those options, I'm sure at least one of them will work.
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This blog is good to read for a prospective Physics student. 5/5
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