CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. A Ready-Reference Book of Chemical and Physical Data (CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics) [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Some years ago, an author in a science fiction magazine put forth a gedanken (thought experiment). Suppose you would be transported to another planet and you had to attempt to rebuild our civilisation. But you could only take 6 books with you.

What would you take?

Well, that author gave a list of his suggestions. One of which was this; well an earlier edition anyway. He pointed out something about the Rubber Handbook, which is what anyone who regularly uses this book calls it. So easy to take for granted, because in any lab, you can usually rummage around and find some edition of it. But it represents millions of hours of engineering and research to measure and collate its results.

If there is one book that summarises the engineering of our civilisation, it is this.

Always nice to see CRC continually updating it. But having said the above, whether you need this latest edition is another matter. The changes are incremental. If you have an older edition, and there is no specific reason to upgrade, then you probably shouldn't. Note that I did not say never. Just tell yourself you can defer it till next year. Then, at that time, ask yourself again.

The biggest thing about the new edition is it's bigger size.

It's probably my old eyes, but the small type on the small pages was getting awfully hard to read. It was becomming a chore to take the book, find the page you want and then squint, hold the page just so under the light so you can get the data you wanted. Maybe it's just the size, maybe it's the new typeface they talk about, I'm not sure. But, the general appearance of the new book is worth getting the new edition.

To be sure, there are a lot of new tables. I suspect that the data in the old tables has been checked, re-checked and corrected to another few decimal places, but as of yet anyway, I haven't needed any of the new tables. Being able to get the data you need more quickly is worth the cost of buying the new edition.

This is still the old standby. There's probably a copy in every lab around the world. And if there isn't, it's because someone from another lab came and borrowed it.

CRC Handbook Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition, includes facsimile of the first 1913 edition by David R. Lide (CRC Press) This is the 85th Edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics and, coincidentally, the 15th edition produced by the current Editor-in-Chief. A facsimile of the First Edition of the Handbook, which appeared in 1913 and contained 116 pages, is being distributed with this volume. Comparison of the two provides a dramatic lesson on the rapid advance of science and technology in the ensuing nine decades. When the First Edition wits published only 81 elements were known, the electron had been discovered only 17 years before, and the proton and neutron were still unknown. Madame Curie had just won her second Nobel Prize, and Max Planck, Niels Bohr, and Albert Einstein had yet to be recognized with this honor. The size and scope of the Handbook have expanded in step with the growth of scientific knowledge. It has not only served as a reference source for professionals and students, but has provided inspiration to many young people as they developed their interest in science. The late Linus Pauling, in his Foreword to the 74th Edition, wrote "I attribute much of my knowledge about substances and their properties to my study of the information that the Handbook provided.

Throughout its history the overall philosophy of the Handbook has been to provide broad coverage of all types of data commonly encountered by physical scientists and engineers, with as much depth as can be accommodated in a one-volume format. While the Internet has spawned numerous large, comprehensive databases covering narrow areas of science, we feel there is still a need for a concise reference source spanning the full range of the physical sciences and focusing on key data that are frequently needed by R&D professionals, engineers, and students. We hope the CRC Handbook, in its print, CD-ROM, and Internet formats, can continue to serve these needs.

The 85th Edition includes updates and expansions of several tables, such as Aqueous Solubility of Organic Compounds, Thermal Conductivity of Liquids, and Table of the Isotopes. A new table on Azeotropic Data for Binary Mixtures has been added, as well as tables on Index of Refraction of Inorganic Crystals and Critical Solution Temperatures of Polymer Solutions. In response to user requests, several topics such as Coefficient of Friction and Miscibility of Organic Solvents have been restored to the Handbook. The latest recommended values of the Fundamental Physical Constants, released in December 2003, are included in this edition. Finally, the Appendix on Mathematical Tables has been revised by Dr. Daniel Zwillinger, editor of the CRC Standard Mathematical Tables and Formulae; it includes new information on factorials, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, orthogonal polynomials, statistical formulas, and other topics.