Although Quantum Mechanics: Classical Results, Modern Systems, and Visualized Examples is a text written for undergraduate physics students, it is a valuable book for chemists also. It has been my experience that the preparation beginning chemistry graduate students have in quantum mechanics is spotty at best. This can be problematic, especially for beginning physical chemists. Often, a graduate student who is learning from a book such as Sakurai's or Messiah's finds herself or himself badly overmatched. I myself prefer to use books such as Park's or others that are aimed at chemists, but often a different perspective at the same level or lower is helpful. I routinely use books aimed at senior-level physics students to provide rigor without overwhelming beginning chemistry graduate students.

Richard Robinett has set out quite a task for himself with this book. As the title suggests, this text is meant to provide the student with a connection between well-worn results that have become standard examples in most quantum mechanics texts, and in addition provide some insight to newer examples. In the preface, Robinett states that there is a "continuing need for updated presentations" and that "new examples and novel applications will continue to appear ." and this is certainly true.

Worked examples are used to illustrate the ideas. Additionally, every chapter ends with both qualitative questions and longer problems to solve, many of which I have not seen before. Examples include the quantum defect in alkali atoms and Doppler cooling of atoms. I like the problems very much, as they try to provide a feel for both the mathematical tricks used to solve a problem and the underlying physical processes being described. Robinett has filled the book with figures; I don't think I have seen a book with more illustrations. To paraphrase Robinett, just because a picture is a cliche it isn't necessarily wrong, and most of the classic illustration examples are used. In addition, most of the critical ideas or equations have an accompanying illustration. This is an aspect of the book that I really find myself liking. For example, a series of figures showing the time development of a two-state wave function, including the position and momentum space distributions as well as the probability flux over time, clearly illustrates the differences between position and momentum representations of a wave function. In order to give some idea of the precision of the quantum mechanical equations, comparisons are made throughout the book between the theoretical predictions and pertinent experimental results.

The figures are not filled with unnecessary or otherwise distracting information. They are simply clear and lucid examples that add much to the discussion in the text. The book is not filled with specific computer examples, nor does it come with a disk or CD. Robinett has chosen to point the instructor or student towards existing software and other books to use the computer as a tool. I like this idea, as suggesting ways to solve equations using Mathematica or Maple. Both allow freedom to use whatever you are comfortable with, and it frees the text to focus on quantum mechanics. It also removes the possibility of including software because everyone else is doing it, a trap that many texts fall into nowadays.

Most quantum mechanics books now contain appendices that run through the basics of common integrals, functions, and mathematical tools such as matrix algebra. I thought that most of the appendices here were too light, at least from a chemistry point of view. Hermite polynomials and Legendre polynomials are among those that I feel require a bit more discussion. I did find the appendix on common integrals and series expansions very enlightening, however.

I feel it is valuable for physical chemists to have a large bag of tricks, as far as mathematics and quantum mechanics go. While this book is not fully suitable as a primary text for chemists, its wide range of subjects, assortment of applications and problems, and visual environment make it a valuable resource in the teaching and learning of quantum mechanics.

There few parts of this book that are clearly of no use to chemists. Often you find yourself coming back to a book in order to supplement a class or help you understand something more clearly. I think that I have just found another book like that!