The uncertainty principle and classical analogs

Quantum Mechanics (Winter, 2012)

Lecture Playlist

  1. Introduction to quantum mechanics

  2. The basic logic of quantum mechanics

  3. Vector spaces and operators

  4. Time evolution of a quantum system

  5. Uncertainty, unitary evolution, and the Schrödinger equation

  6. Entanglement

  7. Entanglement and the nature of reality

  8. Particles moving in one dimension and their operators

  9. Fourier analysis applied to quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle

  10. The uncertainty principle and classical analogs

March 19, 2012

Professor Susskind begins the final lecture of the course by deriving the uncertainty principle from the triangle inequity.  He then shows the correspondence between the motion of wave packets and the classical equations of motion.  The expectation value of position for the center of a wave packet follows the classical equations.  Heavy particles have wave packets which do not spread out over time.

Topics: 
  • Derivation of the uncertainty principle
  • Using the Schrödinger equation to derive the classical equations of motion for a wave packet
  • Wave packets
  • Under what conditions does a wave packet remain localized?
References