It has been over twenty years since we published the first edition of this book. Over that period, our original contention that numerical methods and computers would figure more prominently in the engineering curriculum—particularly in the early parts—has been dramatically borne out. Many universities now offer freshman, sophomore, and junior courses in both introductory computing and numer…
In the years since the first edition of The Handy Science Answer Book was published in 1994, innumerable discoveries and advancements have been made in all fields of science and technology. These accomplishments range from the microscopic to the global— from an understanding of how genes interact and ultimately produce proteins to the recent definition of a planet that excludes Pluto. As …