Customer Reviews

CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae, 31st Edition (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a graduate student in engineering, I did my undergraduate in physics and mathematics. This is by far the number one book that I would suggest to anyone in any science or math. I find the most useful sections are the table of integrals, derivatives, trig identities, geometric formulae, physical constants, and unit conversions (all lists are quite complete). I have a number of other references, including this book's big brother, the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, but I find this one easier to use for most applications. I actually have a much older edition that my dad gave me when he was studying engineering, but I've looked through the new one, and it looks as good as the old. I'm actually buying a second copy to have at the lab.

The more I use this book the more I like it. I use five "handbook-type" sources: this book, the old NBS handbook, the handbook by Bronshtein and Semendatyev, MathWorld on line, and Wikipedia on line; all have their virtues, and I would not do without any one of them. The great virtue of the CRC handbook is not that it's complete, which it isn't, and which no handbook can hope to be. Rather, given that the use of a handbook is to fill in missing facts or techniques in one's knowledge, that I can understand almost anything in the CRC handbook by reading it just once, without having to cross-reference to other sources or other parts of the book. This is an extremely difficult thing to achieve, and I tip my hat to the contributors and editors for doing it so well.

Inevitably, the book pays a price for this. It's most notable in Chapter 8, "Scientific Computing", which is remarkably clear, at the expense of detailed discussion. Fine; so be it. At least I can understand everything it says. Given my druthers, I might have omitted some things from the book to make space for more thorough coverage of certain topics. My criterion wold be based on the assumption that anyone who refers to this volume with any frequency can be presumed to have a reasonably good scientific pocket calculator, so that those things that can be determined by a few keystrokes on a calculator could be safely omitted from this handbook. For example, although a discussion of indefinite integrals and a list of some of the less obvious ones is clearly appropriate, my pocket calculator will disgorge 95% of those listed in a 36-page table in this book if I just enter the integrand and ask for the indefinite integral by a single comand. Hence, my own preference would be to limit the list in the handbook to perhaps 5 pages, including discussion, and use that space to give more coverage to special functions and the relationships among those. But that's purely a matter of personal preference.

An additional advantage of this handbook is that it's inexpensive, considering how much it contains. I get discouraged by the prevalence of technical books that I could really use, but which sell for so much that I can only consult them in my local library or get them on interlibrary loan. This book is inexpensive enough so that any techie who wants a copy can have his or her own. I wish there were more like it.

While this edition is up-to-date with the current information, certain things, like the complete Z-Transform table were taken out, leaving with in place, a basic Z-transform table with only 10 transformations. The previous editions of CRC's Standard Mathematical Tables had complete Z-Transform tables. If you need a complete Z-Transform table, I would recommend looking into the older editions, such as the 27th edition, instead.

The text is the latest version of a handbook I used for a long time while tutoring in math. This latest version is better and more complete than the one I had before. I highly recommend it for anyone needing or interested in mathematics.

Great Reference Book! Definitely worth buying! Doesn't provide explanations or teach anything, but just about anything you want to look up from Integrals to Fourier Series and Transforms.

I wanted to use this in my electrodynamics exams but it didn't have a couple of math formulas.
But it's PERFECT for a reference book though.
And it's user-friendly.
I don't regret buying it at all.

This is a very comprehensive coverage of a broad array of mathametical standards.

Sometimes a mathmetical concept or premise is best understood if you have multible references. This book serves to provide information to those who already have some underlying knowledge to the topic they are referencing in the book - a highly successful implemtation of the primary stated purpose of the book.

The only improvement to this book would be the inclusion of references by the author to primers or underlying concepts that better represent the purpose and utility of the materials presented. Such as a "See Also..." or "For more information on this see..." under each major topic section. That way the author doesn't need to waste time and effort for topics which are not in the intended purpose of the book.

Self improvement and lifelong learners use these books too.

This is still a great resource. However, this edition leaves out many of the tables (though a calculator will generate them) and the information on basic geometric shapes (e.g., volume, area) is difficult to use as a quick reference. The book puts too much emphasis on analytical geometry which makes this version harder for engineers to use. Still is a great value.

Excellent mathematical reference for physics qual. We were given a Hamiltonian with a 1/sinh x potential and the CRC had all the required hyperbolic trig identities.

We have a 1959 edition that was well used. We needed an updated version. It is an excellent resource and companion for every student and teacher as it is for us.