- #1
Whalstib
- 119
- 0
Any ideas? I was prompted as I found a very nice 1970 50th Ed. of the CRC Chemistry and Physics Handbook for $1 today! At fist I was thinking how much of this can be regarded as accurate today? After a moments thought I figured the vast majority of it is probably quite accurate.
I mean how often to physics formulas and the like change nowadays? Perhaps in chemistry they are measuring down to 100 significant figures on atomic weight or something equally so precise it doesn't matter much in the general scheme of things.
Which led me to my post. Have there been any taken for granted serious science premises that have been refuted or refined to a great deal? I was reading the history of the age of the Earth and it kept getting older as radioactivity was discovered but the likes of Lord Kelvin albeit based on current knowledge "accurate" was WAY off! But how about recently? has the computer age refined any ideas so drastically to take note? Will I have information in my 1970 handbook which is archaic and useless?
Anyway I think I like my $1 deal and leafing through it has plenty I don't understand and probably won't but know where to look!
Thanks,
Warren
I mean how often to physics formulas and the like change nowadays? Perhaps in chemistry they are measuring down to 100 significant figures on atomic weight or something equally so precise it doesn't matter much in the general scheme of things.
Which led me to my post. Have there been any taken for granted serious science premises that have been refuted or refined to a great deal? I was reading the history of the age of the Earth and it kept getting older as radioactivity was discovered but the likes of Lord Kelvin albeit based on current knowledge "accurate" was WAY off! But how about recently? has the computer age refined any ideas so drastically to take note? Will I have information in my 1970 handbook which is archaic and useless?
Anyway I think I like my $1 deal and leafing through it has plenty I don't understand and probably won't but know where to look!
Thanks,
Warren