Quantum Mechanics for Everyone

This class wasn't what I expected it to be. It was way better. I expected it to be a lot more like the popular books/audiobooks on quantum mechanics that I've consumed over the past few years. These were the kinds of books that start by introducing a simplified version of the double-slit experiment, and then use that mainly as just a jumping-off point to various philosophical speculations about life, the universe and everything. Don't get me wrong, I personally love philosophical speculation in the right context—but something is greatly lacking when you try to speculate about the implications of a theory without first taking the time to really understand that theory. I recognized this deficiency, but at the same time I just assumed that this was the kind of thing I was stuck with—unless I ever finally got the time to brush up on my college calculus and physics, which I took over 12 years ago (I've actually attempted this a handful of times, but life is busy).

Enter Quantum Mechanics for Everyone. Not a philosophy class—no speculations—you will actually be learning the nuts and bolts of the theory itself. And what I found is that the quantum mysteries are actually even more astonishing when you learn quantum mechanics in this way—it turns out to be even more entertaining than the popular books whose first goal is to entertain.

The best thing about this course IMO: the tutorials. This kind of interactive learning is something you just can't get from a book, even Feynman's QED (which I haven't read yet). I actually paid for the verified track just so I could continue to have access to those amazing tutorials.

Many of the practice problems do involve calculations and you definitely have to turn on your "math mind" and maybe dust out some cobwebs. When I first realized this, I was excited but also momentarily felt wary—would this take more effort than I could give right now? But I dove in anyway, and I'm so glad I did. The level of math was not too high, and each time I answered a mathematical problem correctly on the first try my confidence and excitement for the subject grew and grew.

The practice problems were occasionally challenging, but I thought they served as really good checkpoints to make sure I didn't move on without really understanding the current material first. No, not every answer is laid out for you in plain sight—sometimes you need to go back to redo a tutorial, or re-watch a video, until your brain makes a necessary connection between things—but I really appreciated this, because it kept the course from being boring and boosted my confidence by allowing me to figure some things out on my own. Although the professor does offer his time to answer questions and is very responsive, I'd encourage anyone with a question to first try reviewing the material a second and even a third time, because I found that when I did this, the material already had everything I needed.

Yes, there were a handful of problems that I (and others) thought could have been worded better—but the professor is actively working on improving the course and takes feedback along those lines. I finished the course with a 96%, and I'd estimate that out of the 4% I missed, roughly 2% was due to confusion over the wording of a question or its multiple-choice answers. So, really not a big deal unless you're trying to be perfect, which… well don't try to be perfect when learning a new subject, anyway!

This course provides a good example of how to bridge the gap between science and the general public. These kinds of efforts really need to continue from scientific disciplines and I appreciate the professor and his team for taking the time to make this possible in their field. Now my scientific literacy is higher, and I look forward to eventually raising kids with a more accurate understanding of the world than what I was raised with.

I took this course last year because I wanted to have a better understanding of Quantum Mechanics and to measure its content to what I thought I knew about it. First off, the course is extremely well made. The videos and step by step didactic lessons are exactly what I needed for the type of brain I have. I understand things when I can visualize and or at least bring abstraction into applied experiments. This course is full of that. It gave me a basic, but clear and strong understanding of what quantum physics is and how it serves many purposes in our everyday life. It is no longer this sort of mysterious but cool thing I thought it was. Going in, I was afraid the level of math would be over my head, since I hadn't studied for over 30 years, although I had studied math and physics in my college years, but it was at a level that was very accessible to anyone with a high school degree. Pf. Freericks was constantly and systematically available on the chat to answer questions and to help with the few bumps on the road I encountered, always trying to explain in a different way, if I did get it the first time, or even the 2nd time around. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed taking this class and was very happy to pass with a 95% grade! I recommend highly.

I was really impressed by Professor Freericks's course. He's pioneering a new way of teaching Quantum Mechanics which is rigorous and correctly conveys the actual content of the physical theory without the need for much 'advanced' mathematics.

The course covers many of the most fascinating highlights from QM - e.g., entanglement phenomenon, EPR and hidden variables interpretations of QM, and Bell's theorem - which are often relegated to the very end of an undergraduate QM course, if they are discussed at all. In all cases, the focus is on developing conceptual competence and arriving at a solid understanding of the actual content of the theory, rather than learning the mathematical 'algorithm' for solving stock QM problems.

This is a fresh and exciting approach to introducing the main ideas of quantum mechanics in a way which should be accessible to the determined beginner, and which avoids much difficult mathematics while at the same time avoiding reliance upon shallow or misleading metaphorical or analogical 'explanations'.

I highly recommend this course for anybody looking to better understand the unique issues raised by quantum theory on a deeper level.

An outstanding course. The instructor guaranteed that there would be no lies about QM, that there would be no over-simplifications, and he lived up to that guarantee. This course is not the usual mathematical, bra-ket approach. Instead, it takes a physical approach. Magnetic and light phenomena are discussed, mostly in the context of the two-slit experiment. The math content is not at all difficult yet it employs the Feynman approach of looking at all the ways that an outcome can occur and then combining them coherently, squaring the length, and getting a probability for the event. The subtleties of how the presence/absence/partial presence of which-way info affects the analysis of outcomes and probabilities is treated in an accurate yet intuitive way. The course clearly explains quite sophisticated QM phenomena while still using elementary ideas. A remarkable feat!

Because I have only reached middle school and a high school diploma, and speak English fairly poorly, I have had great doubts about completing this course. Now I have made it, with 97% success. I'm also about 97% sure (I've learned a lot about probabilities) that this is mainly due to the fantastic work of Prof. Freericks and his team. The tutorials were absolutely perfect, all very understandable, logical, phased. Not a word too little, and no unnecessary too much. The simulations are not only incredibly helpful in understanding problems but also elegant and simply chic. So that I - after I had already understood what was to be understood - out of sheer joy had looked at the simulations a few more times.
Thank you for your work, that was a fascinating and impressive experience!

I worked in depth with this course as a reviewer for almost 6 months and have continued to work with similar material since... Dr. Freericks' pedagogical skills are evident, as he presents material clearly and by enlightening or unconventional means. Despite being taught without calculus or higher mathematics, the course material is rigorous and tightly crafted; the presentation is lucid; and the motivation and scale are compelling. I would very highly recommend this course to almost any learner who is willing to spend more than a trivial amount of time getting into the weeds but doesn't want to become too involved in the mathematical prerequisites.

Succinctly: This course doesn't have exhaustive prerequisites and, consequently, requires a curious, astute student. It is, however, very rewarding to a motivated learner.

Because I have only reached middle school and a high school diploma, and speak English fairly poorly, I have had great doubts about completing this course. Now I have made it, with 97% success. I'm also about 97% sure (I've learned a lot about probabilities) that this is mainly due to the fantastic work of Prof. Freericks and his team. The tutorials were absolutely perfect, all very understandable, logical, phased. Not a word too little, and no unnecessary too much. The simulations are not only incredibly helpful in understanding problems but also elegant and simply chic. So that I - after I had already understood what was to be understood - out of sheer joy had looked at the simulations a few more times.
Thank you for your work, that was a fascinating and impressive experience!

I am from the Dominican Republic, and I am really glad that I took Quantum Mechanics for Everyone. This was my second try, since I was not able to complete the prior class. I am a water management specialist in the field of agriculture, and in this class, I was able to learn the quantum basics of transmission and reflection of light. In my field of work, I get to study the transmission of light through water and the reflection of sun light off of several surfaces, including water surface and plant leaf surface. I would think that transmission through and reflection of light that take place off of plant, lakes or even soil surfaces, should be explained with the tools of quantum mechanics. Professor Freericks is very committed to his students and to make sure that the class material addresses the learning points. He combines his talks, the tutorials and the written material to explaing each topic. Exercises offered in the class are very helpful for learning. I recommend this class to all natural science students and professionals.

This is easily the best MOOC course I have taken so far! The content was amazing, and Professor Freericks' pedagogical style was mind-blowing! I have an undergraduate degree, as well as a graduate degree in Chemical Engineering, but I changed fields and got a Masters and Ph.D. in Marketing and Econometrics and have been a professor of Marketing for 22 years now. Its been close to 3 decades since I last did engineering, so I was curious to explore quantum mechanics out of curiosity to see where the field is. For someone who last did college physics in the late 1980s, I was able to keep up with the material, do the exercises, and understand the essence of the mysteries of quantum mechanics. This was such an interesting course, and all the interactive pedagogical tools that Professor Freericks has developed made the material come to life and engage me so well. I had heard about Bell's theorem in science podcasts but never knew what it was until I took this class. Now I appreciate what exactly Bell did to rule out the hidden variables theory proposed by Einstein and co-authors to explain "spooky action at a distance." My interest in probability made it easy to keep up with discussions of superposition, adding probability amplitudes across alternative ways of occurrence of an event etc. All in all, such a pleasurable learning experience. I look forward to other courses from Professor Freericks in the future. He has a genuine passion for teaching and a desire to make people learn technically difficult content with creative learning aids. Bravo!

I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to get a basic understanding of the principles of quantum mechanics. This EDx course has to be the best online course I have ever taken for several reasons:

1. It uses interactive simulations to understand various concepts in quantum mechanics and these are very easy to use and repeat to understand the concepts.

2. Each module is the right length of videos and problems and simulations. The lecturer also refers to other experiments and shows videos which really help as well.

3. Unlike some other quantum mecahnics courses, the level of maths you need to know is very basic and the focus is on understand the concepts.

4. One of the difficulties probably with quantum mechanics is that at present we can not really explain the real reason for why we get the paradoxical experiment results, but they are what they are and this course just moves on rather than dwell too long on the actual meanings or interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Generally this is a good beginner course or taster / survey course.