Reddit mentions of Quantum Physics: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guides)

And will remain in a super-position state until OP collapses the probability function by observing the screen!

As a sidenote, anyone interested in quantum theory should check out Quantum Enigma by Rosenblum/Kuttner, a general summary of the contradictory ideas that drive quantum physics. I've read others such as Beginner's Guide to Quantum Physics and The Mathematical Principles of Quantum Mechanics, but found that the Rosenblum/ Kuttner is by far the most clear and easiest to understand without a physics/ math background. Another great one is Einstein and the Quantum: The Quest of the Valiant Swabian, which gives a great account of the historical beginnings of quantum physics as a scientific field (focusing on Einstein of course). Very well-written, andectotal, and an awesome read for anyone interested in the history of science.

Come join /r/quantum! We need more posts!

>This is also the first time I'll be TA'ing any undergraduate course,

What the hell? They didn't start you on a Physics 101 type course? Generally these things work on seniority, don't they? Older grad students get the higher level courses?

That's really a tough question because understanding things like decoherence and entanglement is actually pretty hard, an involves pouring over books like Ballentine's book, which is quite high level. Maybe the best way to skirt the problem is something like Leonard Susskind's Theoretical Minimum lectures and just skip the math stuff if you already know it?

I've never read it, but I know people who know there stuff who have said positive things about this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Physics-Beginners-Guide-Guides/dp/1851683690/ref=pd_sim_14_14?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1851683690&pd_rd_r=0BTNV7MGS50VZ6GCMRJK&pd_rd_w=Bfwu2&pd_rd_wg=IzuQb&psc=1&refRID=0BTNV7MGS50VZ6GCMRJK

It also allegedly does something which I'm a big fan of: taking the emphasis off thought experiments and live/dead cats and putting it onto the actual value of QM as the cornerstone of modern technology and the architect of the digital age.

Though my most earnest advice would be to just stick to what you know and deflect the things you don't. It really is very hard and you don't want to spread misinformation. I routinely talk to professors, who work in fields where ostensibly they should know a fair bit about QM, but they often know very little beyond the "shut up and calculate". And I don't just mean interpretation stuff, but just stuff like passing from QM to CM and vice versa, Poisson brackets and correspondence, equivalence of pictures, connection to QFT, path integrals, etc.

For a more general read I'd recommend Quantum Mechanics: A Beginner's Guide by Alastair I.M. Rae, it is the book that made me decide to study physics (alongside Fabric of the Cosmos by Greene)

It focuses on the applications of QM which I found far more interesting than the esoteric philosophical discussions, but it also explains a lot about it at a level good for high schoolers.