CRC handbook of chemistry and physics
a ready-reference book of chemical and physical data.
by William M. Haynes · first published 2011
56% recommend33% neutral11% critical
Why HN recommends it
Reference handbook of physical constants, equation tables and chemical data; valued as a compact, dependable lookup for working scientists and engineers, and as a staple from school chemistry onward.
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I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it yet, but the book that would be most practical to actually recover society after disaster from a purely technical standpoint would be the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Chemistry-Physics-94th-Editio... The sheer amount of information in that huge book is crazy. Another alternative would be a wikipedia backup stored on an SD card and…
on “A new book compiles knowledge necessary for society to recover after disaster” ↗…years; so, if any of you know anything like it, please let me know. Turtle Geometry, The Art of Electronics 2nd ed, The Art of Electronics 3rd when available, The Engineering Handbook, Second Edition, CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, Ugly's Electrical Reference, The Pocket Reference by Thomas Glover, The Mythical Man-Month, K&R, The Pragmatic Programmer Pyzdek's guide to SPC - I'd like to find a nice short treatment of statistics…
on “Ask HN: What books for beginners in electronics and programming” ↗Zumdahl's Chemistry and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics were the mainstays of my high school and college chemistry education.
on “Chemists Were Wrong About Splenda” ↗The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. It's basically a manual of useful constants, plus tables of equations, plus other information. The data is replicated online in various places but if the networks are destroyed it could be useful to…
on “What Books Could Be Used to Rebuild Civilization?” ↗…complex Fourier series." _Mathematics of Computation_, 19(90), 297–297. doi:10.1090/s0025-5718-1965-0178586-1 (https://www.eit.lth.se/fileadmin/eit/courses/eit085f/Cooley_...) I might also have added the _CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics_ that seems to have been on every working scientists's and engineer's bookshelf (including mine) during the mid-to-late 20th century. Still in print, nearing the 100th edition. Also, some of my old favorite…
on “Ask HN: Older textbooks/papers you consider classics still worth studying today?” ↗Ah, 10% of the first section of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, with amateur typography. Sort of like Greenspun's tenth rule, but for math.
on “Mathematics all-in-one cheat-sheet (2013) [pdf]” ↗…100%: >Two recent reliable sources cited here have total atmospheric compositions, including trace molecules, that exceed 100%. They are Allen's Astrophysical Quantities[5] (2000, 100.001241343%) and CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics[4] (2016–2017, 100.004667%), which cites Allen's Astrophysical Quantities. Both are used as references in this article. Both exceed 100% because their CO2 values were increased to 345 ppmv, without changing…
on “Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere hit record high in May” ↗:) Kinetic stability vs. Thermodynamic stability is one of the reasons why it’s so difficult to make a chemistry lab simulator without just handcoding thousands of reactions. Books like The CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics have all the information needed to simulate a reaction thermodynamically, but not realistically. For example, thermodynamically hydrogen gas should explode on contact with oxygen, but that doesn’t generally…
on “Lego Wants to Remake Its Toy Bricks without Anyone Noticing” ↗My copy of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (basically an encyclopedia of scientific facts. Things like melting points, conductivity, etc.) has an opening from the current editor explaining that when he took over as editor he tried to track down…
on “Retraction of Roomtemperature superconductivity in a carbonaceous sulfur hydride” ↗…a multiple of the kilogram, and the kilogram is mass, then the pound must be a mass also. This legislation should be amended to remove the misleading heading. Highly-regarded reference books like the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 83rd Edition (2002-2003) has the definition given above in terms of the kilogram. The pound is, again, a mass and nothing else. (This is also true in the 1960 edition, but the 1960 edition has some non-self-consistent…
on “Engineer eats efficiently for $2.50 a day (2016)” ↗