The image above is taken from the first lecture, about Planck power. Though not as well known as Planck mass, Planck length, ... the fundamental scale of power is quite interesting (and ironically does not involve h-bar, just G and c). The AI generated image is not meant to scare you into thinking you're in for a workout. Rather, it tries to make clear that we are committed to bringing you a fun course! Turns out Copilot knows the difference between "Planck" and "plank".

Most quantum mechanics texts spend a lot of pages on formalism and are spare and very predictable in the phenomena that are covered. This course is different. Phenomena are front and center, with formalism developed as necessary. Of course this comes with the understanding that you've already had one shot of formalism, and maybe even a booster! There are no texts that take this approach to teaching quantum mechanics, so we are going to try an experiment. The "book" will take shape, with your help, over the course of the semester. In lectures, the instructor will be working from notes that students take turns transcribing to a LaTeX document on Overleaf. Understandably these will be rough, with smart-phone photos pasted in as necessary. But an expert editing staff will clean these up in time for doing the homework problems. Students rotate through the role of "scribe" and participation is voluntary and does not count toward your grade. If you don't know LaTeX, no problem! Just use one of the existing chapters/lectures as a template and replace the text and equations with your notes from class. It's a great opportunity to learn the leading typesetting language of physics, if you don't know it already, or to fine-tune your technique if you have some experience. You must be enrolled in the course in order to collaborate on the book project and to see the lectures and homework assignments.

Your course grade will be based on short, weekly homework assignments. Instead of exams there is a writing project called "My Favorite Effect". Your effect should involve quantum mechanics in some way, even if it's just a quantum-inspired technique for solving a problem. Some of the phenomena discussed in lecture lend themselves to extensions and generalization and are great opportunities for achieving your lifetime goal, which of course is to have an effect named after you! To avoid duplication, email the title of your effect and it will be posted on this website for others to see.