![]() ![]() ![]() While the Internet has spawned numerous large 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. 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. 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." In the Foreword to the present edition Oliver Sacks, author of the best seller Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, describes the strong influence the Handbook had on him from the age of ten. 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. PREFACE Since the First Edition of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics appeared in 1913, the size and scope have expanded in step with the growth of scientific knowledge. While the CRC Handbook is monumental in its scope, a huge, alwaysto-be-relied-upon mine of information, it is also a friendly book, a companion which has given me joy for the greater part of my life. Indeed, one way and another, whether reading in bed or in my study, I have always had a Handbook near me. While I keep the massive recent editions in my study, I keep my original one, the 23rd edition, on my bedside table, for it is easy to handle (especially when one is reading in bed), and was my most cherished gift as a boy. ![]() I got the 30th (1947) and the 41st (1959-1960) editions-at this point the Handbook still had its smaller format, but had become almost cubical in shape (the 41st edition had nearly 3500 pages) and then, of course, it morphed into its present, monumental format. Although my interests later turned more to biology and then medicine, the CRC Handbook has never lost its enchantment for me. #Ti cs cas condense logarithms seriesCould it be, I wondered, that they were not in fact analogues of hafnium and tungsten, not transition metals at all, but belonged to an interpolated series which resembled the rare-earth metals? To my joy, after the War, I found that this naïf idea of mine, a possibly unjustified leap of the imagination, turned out to be true-but it was entirely due to poring over the tables of the CRC Handbook that I owed it. Thorium had a lower melting point and density than hafnium uranium lower ones than tungsten. I think I owe the only original idea I had in my chemical boyhood to these tables-for, having been struck by the steadily rising melting points and densities of the transition metals in Groups IV-VI as one went from Period 3 to 6 (Ti, Zr, Hf V, Nb, Ta Cr, Mo, W), I was then taken aback to find that the Period 7 analogues of these broke the series. I was especially attracted to the Physical Constants of Inorganic Compounds, a hundred and fifty densely-packed pages which, through constant poring over, I got almost by heart. I fell in love with it straightaway-my uncle, seeing this, told me I might keep it-for its tables were so full of information that I thought of it as containing the whole universe between its covers. This was not pocket-sized, like the earlier editions he had on his shelf, and indeed contained over 2200 pages, but these were printed on thin India paper, and the whole book, with its soft red morocco cover, fitted easily in the hand. Pasadena, CA 91125 Daniel Zwillinger Mathematics Department Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180įOREWORD My acquaintance with the CRC Handbook goes back sixty years, for when I was inducted into the wonders of chemistry by an uncle of mine (“Uncle Tungsten”)-I was ten-he lent me his copy of the 23rd (1939) edition. Roth Millikan Library / Caltech 1-32 1200 E. Kehiaian ITODYS University of Paris VII 1, rue Guy de la Brosse 75005 Paris, France Kozo Kuchitsu Department of Chemistry Josai University, Sakado 350-0295, Japan Gerd Rosenblatt 1177 Miller Avenue Berkeley, CA 94708 Dana L. Goldberg Biotechnology Division National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Henry V. Berger California Institute of Electronics and Materials Science 2115 Flame Tree Way Hemet, CA 92545 Robert N. Lide Former Director, Standard Reference Data National Institute of Standards and TechnologyĮditorial Advisory Board Grace Baysinger Swain Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-5080 Lev I. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics Editor-in-Chief David R. ![]()
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