- #1
Intraverno
- 37
- 9
Hello everyone, I'm currently a high school student that hopes to be a physicist one day and I'm part of a special science and math focused program in a public high school, which was started to promote STEM. It's a relatively prestigious and very rigorous program with a full on research project in senior year where the students collaborate with scientists nearby (the school is located near a military lab), and this is obviously going to help a great deal with getting into college. Because of how accelerated the program is, there is a lot of choices for me to make on what STEM classes I take, with many being exclusive to the program and all being modified in some way for the program. Because of this and the fact that I want to be a physicist I was wondering if it would be feasible for me to independently study *basic* quantum mechanics in my senior year (independent study is available in certain situations, and if I was able to accomplish this I'm relatively certain that I would be allowed to do so).
I'm not the most familiar with the progression one would take to get up to the level of quantum mechanics, but the way I understand it with Calculus under my belt it would be enough math for me to understand the very basic ideas of it (again, this is not from an actual physicist or student, so please do correct me if I'm wrong). To give you an idea of my situation, the math and science progression that I go through during my time in high school is:
9th grade: Algebra 2 for math, AP Environmental Science and Biology
10th grade: Trig and Precalc, AP Statistics, AP computer science (counts as a math class), Chemistry
11th grade: AP Calculus AB, AP Physics C: Mechanics, possibly AP Chemistry
12th grade: AP Calculus BC, a semester of basic Linear Algebra, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
So what does everyone think? Would I be able to learn enough basic QM through independent study with the things under my belt shown above that it would be worth it to dedicate a semester or even the whole year to it? Any and all input is appreciated, and if I could learn a significant amount of physics what introductory textbooks would you recommend that I could understand with the level of knowledge that I would have during my senior year?
I'm not the most familiar with the progression one would take to get up to the level of quantum mechanics, but the way I understand it with Calculus under my belt it would be enough math for me to understand the very basic ideas of it (again, this is not from an actual physicist or student, so please do correct me if I'm wrong). To give you an idea of my situation, the math and science progression that I go through during my time in high school is:
9th grade: Algebra 2 for math, AP Environmental Science and Biology
10th grade: Trig and Precalc, AP Statistics, AP computer science (counts as a math class), Chemistry
11th grade: AP Calculus AB, AP Physics C: Mechanics, possibly AP Chemistry
12th grade: AP Calculus BC, a semester of basic Linear Algebra, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
So what does everyone think? Would I be able to learn enough basic QM through independent study with the things under my belt shown above that it would be worth it to dedicate a semester or even the whole year to it? Any and all input is appreciated, and if I could learn a significant amount of physics what introductory textbooks would you recommend that I could understand with the level of knowledge that I would have during my senior year?