This book is a collection of problems intended to aid students in their graduate courses in physics and in preparing for the PhD qualifying exam. Thus, the included problems are of the type that could be on a qualifying exam or are problems that are meant to elucidate a principle that is important for the exam. Unlike other compilations of problems, the problems in this text are placed in the broader context of the subject.
The goal of the book is to develop the problem solving skills of the reader to insure a complete understanding of the physics. Problems and solutions are presented in detail, and, additionally, their significance is discussed within the context of the physical principle(s) that they illustrate. The solution of the problem is only the beginning of the learning process--it is in manipulating the solution and changing the parameters that a great deal of insight can be gleaned. This technique is referred to by the authors as "massaging the problem," and it is a technique that the authors have found to considerably increase the pedagogical value of any problem.

J. Daniel Kelley received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Georgetown University, and then joined Brookhaven National Laboratory, studying molecular collision theory. He next joined the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing Research Laboratory, working on projects ranging from analytical chemistry to laser development, and simultaneously served as an Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry and Physics Departments at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. After retirement as a Boeing Technical Fellow in 2001, Dr. Kelley spent two years as a Visiting Scholar in the Thermosciences Division at Stanford University, and has been a consultant to Boeing, NASA and the University of Minnesota.

Classical Mechanics.- Newtonian Physics.- Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics.- Central Forces and Orbits.- Normal Modes and Coordinates.- Quantum Mechanics.- Introductory Concepts.- Bound States in One Dimension.- Ladder Operators for the Harmonic Oscillator.- Angular Momentum.- Bound states in Three Dimensions.- Approximation Methods.- The Variational Method.- Non-degenerate Time Independent Perturbation Theory.- Degenerate Time Independent Perturbation Theory.- Time Dependent Perturbation Theory.