Abramowitz and Stegun (AS) is the informal name of a 1964 mathematical reference work edited by Milton Abramowitz and Irene Stegun of the United States National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Its full title is Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. A digital successor to the Handbook was released as the "Digital Library of Mathematical Functions" (DLMF) on 11 May 2010, along with a printed version, the NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, published by Cambridge University Press.

Overview

Since it was first published in 1964, the 1046-page Handbook has been one of the most comprehensive sources of information on special functions, containing definitions, identities, approximations, plots, and tables of values of numerous functions used in virtually all fields of applied mathematics. The notation used in the Handbook is the de facto standard for much of applied mathematics today.

At the time of its publication, the Handbook was an essential resource for practitioners. Nowadays, scientific calculators, numerical analysis software packages, and computer algebra systems have replaced the function tables, but the Handbook remains an important reference source. The foreword discusses a meeting in 1954 in which it was agreed that "the advent of high-speed computing equipment changed the task of table making but definitely did not remove the need for tables".

More than 1,000 pages long, the Handbook of Mathematical Functions was first published in 1964 and reprinted many times, with yet another reprint in 1999. Its influence on science and engineering is evidenced by its popularity. In fact, when New Scientist magazine recently asked some of the world's leading scientists what single book they would want if stranded on a desert island, one distinguished British physicist said he would take the Handbook. The Handbook is likely the most widely distributed and most cited NIST technical publication of all time. Government sales exceed 150,000 copies, and an estimated three times as many have been reprinted and sold by commercial publishers since 1965. During the mid-1990s, the book was cited every 1.5 hours of each working day. And its influence will persist as it is currently being updated in digital format by NIST.

— NIST

Page 97 showing part of a table of common logarithms

The chapters are:

  1. Mathematical Constants
  2. Physical Constants and Conversion Factors
  3. Elementary Analytical Methods
  4. Elementary Transcendental Functions
  5. Exponential Integral and Related Functions
  6. Gamma Function and Related Functions
  7. Error Function and Fresnel Integrals
  8. Legendre Functions
  9. Bessel Functions of Integral Order
  10. Bessel Functions of Fractional Order
  11. Integrals of Bessel Functions
  12. Struve Functions and Related Functions
  13. Confluent Hypergeometric Functions
  14. Coulomb Wave Functions
  15. Hypergeometric Functions
  16. Jacobian Elliptic Functions and Theta Functions
  17. Elliptic Integrals
  18. Weierstrass Elliptic and Related Functions
  19. Parabolic Cylinder Functions
  20. Mathieu Functions
  21. Spheroidal Wave Functions
  22. Orthogonal Polynomials
  23. Bernoulli and Euler Polynomials, Riemann Zeta Function
  24. Combinatorial Analysis
  25. Numerical Interpolation, Differentiation, and Integration
  26. Probability Functions
  27. Miscellaneous Functions
  28. Scales of Notation
  29. Laplace Transforms

Editions

Because the Handbook is the work of U.S. federal government employees acting in their official capacity, it is not protected by copyright in the United States. While it could be ordered from the Government Printing Office, it has also been reprinted by commercial publishers, most notably Dover Publications (ISBN 0-486-61272-4), and can be legally viewed on and downloaded from the web.

While there was only one edition of the work, it went through many print runs including a growing number of corrections.

Original NBS edition:

  • 1st printing: June 1964; errata:
  • 2nd printing with corrections: November 1964; errata:
  • 3rd printing with corrections: March 1965; errata:
  • 4th printing with corrections: December 1965; errata:
  • 5th printing with corrections: August 1966
  • 6th printing with corrections: November 1967
  • 7th printing with corrections: May 1968
  • 8th printing with corrections: 1969
  • 9th printing with corrections: November 1970
  • 10th printing with corrections: December 1972

Reprint edition by Dover Publications:

  • 1st printing: 1965
  • ?
  • 9th printing with additional corrections (based on 10th printing of NBS edition with corrections)

Related projects

Michael Danos and Johann Rafelski edited the Pocketbook of Mathematical Functions, published by Verlag Harri Deutsch in 1984. The book is an abridged version of Abramowitz's and Stegun's Handbook, retaining most of the formulas (except for the first and the two last original chapters, which were dropped), but reducing the numerical tables to a minimum, which, by this time, could be easily calculated with scientific pocket calculators. The references were removed as well. Most known errata were incorporated, the physical constants updated and the now-first chapter saw some slight enlargement compared to the former second chapter. The numbering of formulas was kept for easier cross-reference.

A digital successor to the Handbook, long under development at NIST, was released as the “Digital Library of Mathematical Functions” (DLMF) on 11 May 2010, along with a printed version, the NIST Handbook of Mathematical Functions, published by Cambridge University Press.

See also

Notes

Further reading

  • Abramowitz, Milton; Stegun, Irene Ann, eds. (1983) [June 1964]. Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables. Applied Mathematics Series. Vol. 55 (Ninth reprint with additional corrections of tenth original printing with corrections (December 1972); first ed.). Washington D.C.; New York: United States Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards; Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-61272-0. LCCN . MR . LCCN .
  • Boisvert, Ronald F.; Lozier, Daniel W. (January 2001). (PDF). In Lide, David R. (ed.). A Century of Excellence in Measurements Standards and Technology - A Chronicle of Selected NBS/NIST Publications 1901–2000. Washington, D.C., USA: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) / CRC Press. pp. 135–139. ISBN 978-0-8493-1247-2. CODEN . NIST Special Publication 958. 20402–9325. Archived from (PDF) on 2011-10-14. (NB. A history of the activities leading up to and surrounding the development of the Handbook.)

External links

  • A high quality scan of the book, in PDF and TIFF formats, hosted at
  • The book in scanned format, now hosted at (formerly at Simon Fraser University). # but this scan dropped tables of numbers. For example, the pages contained table of abscissas and weights of Gauss quadrature formulas are omitted. Only formulas are scanned.
  • by ConvertIt.com
  • download - NBS, Tenth Printing, December 1972, with Corrections - PDF without Search
  • , the digital successor of the Handbook