16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Kindle version almost impossible to use, June 12, 2010
The content of this book seems to be good, but my problem is that the kindle version has no table of contents, no index and no search function. It is therefore impossible to quickly find the section that you want or the topic you want - you have to page through the entire book until something useful appears. This is a fatal flaw for a reference book.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good portable reference for professionals and graduate students, January 7, 2009
This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables, 3ed (Schaum's Outline Series) (Paperback)
This is a pretty helpful Schaum's outline, in that most of the mathematical tables and formulas that an undergraduate math student would need are included. Material from geometry, calculus, differential equations, numerical methods, special functions and transforms, and probability and statistics are included. Plus, there are some examples of how to perform some types of calculations. There is even a section on calculating compound interest and the value of an annuity for those students of financial mathematics. Also, it is much easier than lugging around the infamous 2600 page "CRC Handbook of Mathematics and Physics." Of course, there are tradeoffs. This book has mathematical tables and formulas only, there are no physics equations.
Generally, if you are an undergraduate student in math or science, your required textbook will have all of the equations and tables that your instructor would expect you to have committed to memory for exams. Thus I am not sure if it is worth the extra cost to buy this book too. I think this book would be most helpful for someone who is out of school who needs their undergraduate mathematics tables and formulas condensed and in one portable book that can be taken to work and stored at the office, rather than carrying around the dozen or so math texts you used during your undergraduate career. It would also be helpful for someone going to graduate school in math, physics, or engineering who is expected to already know this material and therefore needs a handy reference.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book, Somewhat limited Kindel version, June 23, 2011
I am a physicist and work in a wide range of fields from nuclear to plasma to particle accelerators. I have used the Schaum's Mathematical Handbook for years (decades actually). It provides an excellent reference of handy formulas all in one spot. Sure I have bigger and nicer tables of integrals, but they are limited to tables of integrals and generally most everything I need to look up is in this guide. With modern computers and calculators the tables are probably anarchistic (I personally have never used them, ever!).
I got the Kindle version so I could have access to the book when traveling. In general the Kindle version is acceptable, but there are a number of problems with it. First, at least on the PC Kindle application the formulas are formatted oddly. In particular they are aligned to the bottom of the line not the center. This is just not the way formulas are displayed and makes them much harder to read. Spacing is often missing in aligned formulas. For example coordinate transforms. Typically space is added to align the equal signs for the different coordinates. In general these are missing, and often formulas are squashed against the braces. All of this makes them harder to read. Having the formulas formatted oddly will also contribute to errors, as the formulas mostly just do not look right, and the base line alignment can make formals with complex subscript/superscripts difficult to interpret.
Some of the formulas are encoded as text and some (generally the more complex ones) are encoded as graphics. This works OK as long as you don't change the font size. If you do the alignment falls apart, and different parts of a single formal may end up with different size fonts.
While I don't think the tables are very useful, they appear to be encoded as graphics so they will not change size, and you cannot select or highlight an entry in the table.
Another reviewer indicated the book as no contents or search features. My version certainly has a table of contents, which is linked to each section and is quite useful. Further the general Kindle search features work fine as long as you are looking for text (not math). This is generally what you would expect.
This is not to say that all the access features are implemented correctly. A digital version of this book should be able to take advantage of the ability to include links. There is a table of contents containing links to the sections, but there are no other links. For example, my version has a full index. The index does not contain page number, locations, or links so this is basically wasted space. There is also a sub-index in the table of special indefinite integrals (a section I use a lot). This sub-index to the various types of integrals is not linked (and does not contain page or location numbers), so you need to page though the text to find the correct region. The 1st edition (paperback) did not have this sub-index, but had banners separating the various types of integrals, which were much easier to find. (Don't have a copy of the 2nd edition with me right now.)
In summary I would highly recommend the Schaum's Outline, but I think the Kindle version is only suitable as a back or travel copy. The oddly formatted math, and lack of full linking limit what could have been a much better product. I would probably give 2 stars to the Kindle version and 5 to the paperback. The lack or proper formatting probably limits the usability of technical texts on the Kindle. Too bad as this could have been a good way to travel with reference material.
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