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Handbook of Mathematical Functions: with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables
Students and professionals in the fields of mathematics, physics, engineering, and economics will find this reference work invaluable. A classic resource for working with special functions, standard trig, and exponential logarithmic definitions and extensions, it features 29 sets of tables, some to as high as 20 places.
1072 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 19, 2015
Even in the days of Mathematica, which I've used for over 10 years, I still consult this book. For one thing I know it; though I haven't memorized it, I know it well enough to quickly find what I'm looking for and in a form I readily recognize. All of its content can be extracted from Mathematica but sometimes its conventions are different and it can take time to work them out. So when I'm in a hurry I consult this reference. Also, the conventions and notations used in "Abramowitz and Stegun" (we tended not to use acronyms at that time) are still ingrained in the literature of the physical sciences, whereas, some of Mathematica's are not and a few are downright weird, to the extent I haven't figured out why they are used.
My tattered copy also is a source of fond memories of study in my youth. I can almost remember how it received each tatter. It also is nostalgic of a different time, when the capabilities of computers were much more limited than today. We had no "GUI"s then, we still "programmed"--everything! In those days the computer was more like a souped-up adding machine than the interactive device it is now. In fact I, for one, don't even think of modern computers as such. Most of what I do with mine is not computational. I tend to think of it as an environment where I perform a multitude of tasks more or less directly and not as an aid. Indeed, from that point of view (of being an aid), in those days, Abramowitz and Stegun was just as much an aid and every bit as essential as the computer.
For those thoroughly steeped in feminism it is noteworthy that this book's second editor, Irene A. Stegun was--as the name Irene once made conclusive--a woman.
In another note, I was once privileged to know the late Max Goldstein, an author cited in Abramowitz and Stegun. Max was a well-remembered presence in the 13th floor lounge of the Courant Institute, where we all met in the afternoon for coffee, tea, pastries. In those gatherings we talked about all kinds of stuff, some of which I heard for the first time there--such as neural networks, just beginning, I believe, to be recognized as an engaging problem. Max was, again to me, a warm grandfatherly person who did not disdain to talk to us students. He had been at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and had interesting stories to tell. (I hasten to add that Max was no "lounge lizard"; he was, in fact, very busy and integral to Courant's computing facilities.)
My tattered copy also is a source of fond memories of study in my youth. I can almost remember how it received each tatter. It also is nostalgic of a different time, when the capabilities of computers were much more limited than today. We had no "GUI"s then, we still "programmed"--everything! In those days the computer was more like a souped-up adding machine than the interactive device it is now. In fact I, for one, don't even think of modern computers as such. Most of what I do with mine is not computational. I tend to think of it as an environment where I perform a multitude of tasks more or less directly and not as an aid. Indeed, from that point of view (of being an aid), in those days, Abramowitz and Stegun was just as much an aid and every bit as essential as the computer.
For those thoroughly steeped in feminism it is noteworthy that this book's second editor, Irene A. Stegun was--as the name Irene once made conclusive--a woman.
In another note, I was once privileged to know the late Max Goldstein, an author cited in Abramowitz and Stegun. Max was a well-remembered presence in the 13th floor lounge of the Courant Institute, where we all met in the afternoon for coffee, tea, pastries. In those gatherings we talked about all kinds of stuff, some of which I heard for the first time there--such as neural networks, just beginning, I believe, to be recognized as an engaging problem. Max was, again to me, a warm grandfatherly person who did not disdain to talk to us students. He had been at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project and had interesting stories to tell. (I hasten to add that Max was no "lounge lizard"; he was, in fact, very busy and integral to Courant's computing facilities.)
October 30, 2015
On my search of understanding the Gamma function in order to learn how to generalize factorials and then discuss with my friends how they did things back in the old days, I've met again with this beauty, a very comprehensive list of the most used functions and a quick-to-read list of everything you need to see the world in an more intimate fashion.
November 1, 2012
Comprehensive, dense and invaluable in days before Matlab, Mathematica, Wikipedia etc. The tables may be superseded by technology but still a key reference for formulae and special functions.
March 31, 2017
You may never need to know two dozen different recurrence relations for confluent hypergeometric functions. But, if that day comes, your options are A&S or its online successor http://dlmf.nist.gov/.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews