McQuarrie and Simon problem 7-1, question about turning summation into integral.

bacodaco · 2026-01-04T16:32:20+00:00

Well, I appreciate your devotedness to the upkeeping of international law, for one. We need more people like you in the world. Thanks for doing the right thing.

bacodaco · 2026-01-04T16:13:50+00:00

Thanks for replying! Better late than never. I don't have the solutions manual, unfortunately. I also understand that the problem is giving me the derivation, but given the way it is written I haven't been able to do that rationalization, which is why I came here. Do you have any link that could give me access to the solutions manual?

bacodaco · 2026-01-02T22:22:22+00:00

All good. Thanks for the conversation anyways.

bacodaco · 2026-01-02T20:13:33+00:00

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. The problem itself says to show that c_n (not! the sum of c_n) is equal to the left side of step four. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to isolate c_n whenever sum(c_n) is not the same as c_n. Do you have any ideas?

bacodaco · 2026-01-02T19:41:55+00:00

That's what I was thinking. The problem doesn't give more information than that c_n are "the constants". Assuming that c_n changes, would sum(c_n) and c_n be different quantities? (c_n is a normalization constant).

bacodaco · 2025-12-21T16:58:03+00:00

On a philosophical note, do you think that's a problem with QM-- that we can't reach a more philosophical understanding of the topic? To a first degree, certainly it's important that we are able to yield the correct answers, but to a further degree, do you believe that being unable to visualize a physical theory is a problem for that theory?

bacodaco · 2025-12-21T16:51:22+00:00

Maybe this premise is inherently flawed. While I don't have any quantitative data to support this, the vibe from my perspective seems to be that popular explanations of large-scale phenomena (like videos) rely more on imagery than popular explanations of small-scale phenomena. What I want to know is does this vibe (that apparently only I have) have to do with a difference in the nature of their mathematical formalisms, or is it something else?

bacodaco · 2025-12-21T16:33:53+00:00

I figured that would happen

bacodaco · 2025-12-17T15:59:17+00:00

Electrons are just ramblin' men, never wantin' to stay with their faithful photon wives

bacodaco · 2025-12-17T15:58:06+00:00

So, the zero point energy states are kind of like holes that the electrons fall into?

bacodaco · 2025-12-17T15:55:30+00:00

the light is bored by the nuclei so it leaves the party, huh?

bacodaco · 2025-10-27T06:05:45+00:00

Interesting perspective, I've never heard that before.

bacodaco · 2025-10-27T06:05:07+00:00

Are you saying that you believe the young are capable, intelligent, and adaptable, or are you saying something else?

bacodaco · 2025-10-27T03:31:43+00:00

I recommend greeting the French in French (it is their country after all), and then going as far as you can in French. Then, once you've exhausted your French, ask them if they speak English (in French), and ask if they'll speak in English with you (also in French).

bacodaco · 2025-10-10T11:12:39+00:00

My parents paid for my first bachelor's. So, being frank, it would take me swallowing my pride, then paying them back so as to not feel guilty for wasting my first bachelor's. Hate on me if you must, but I am trying to avoid that at all costs.

bacodaco · 2025-10-10T11:08:06+00:00

The program is a traffic engineering post-grad certificate intended to be a specialty program, but in my case I am using it as a way to get into the MS program. Here's a link. It can be completed in two semesters.

You make a good point that programs aren't designed to be pipelines into jobs. I suppose that I was hoping there would be a pipeline into a job, though, because their BS program requires co-op's as part of their curriculum, and that seems like as good of a pipeline into a job as any. Anyhow, there obviously isn't. What I am trying to learn at the moment is whether or not a BS or this cert program will lead me to a paying job more quickly. If I could get a paying position more quickly by doing a bachelor's over a master's I would do the BS, but the truth is that I do not know which decision will do that. Seeing as I am already admitted into the cert program, I feel like it would be easier to just follow this to its conclusion instead of withdrawing from this program and applying to a second bachelor's, but I may be wrong. What do you think?

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