Do you have a personal reference book? Share tips on creating one!

[Livethefire]

(feel free to move this post if it doesn't belong here)

I've been searching around the internet and here for the past few days and can't find anything relating to this.

Does anyone keep a personal notebook wherein they have complied useful formulas and such for reference? If so I would love to hear tips on how they ever started to create such a book.

I know you can buy books like that, but if you created it yourself things would stick better and you would have exactly all you need in there plus room for expansion.

The reason I ask is simple, I think it is about time I begin compling such a book because frankly I believe it would be tremedously helpful, particularly if you learned a topic once and then have to come back to it later etc.

Thanks.

 

[Metaleer]

There's a problem with personalized compilations - different people require, in general, different formulas depending on their background, what they do research in, what they work with, etc... but the most usual formulas are found in popular handbooks, such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/0071548556/?tag=pfamazon01-20 (this one is an updated version of the Abramowitz/Stegun handbook).

I personally haven't created my own formula handbook, I just use the first one, pretty much anything I need is there. :)

 

[Studiot]

Good thread.

Yes such a compilation is obviously intensely personal, but many starting out can't afford a copy of the Rubber book, CRC handbook or Kempe's for isntance.

It's all less important these days of personal computers, spreadsheets simulators the internet and whatnot.

But one set I still use occasionally from the days long ago when I did a lot of audio design work.
I compiled a set of tables of current, voltage and power (Peak and RMS) for various impedances.

go well

 

[Livethefire]

Yeah I agree that what I am referring to is "personal", but in my view that is why it may be advantageous. Instead of having a standard book with possibly a lot of bloat a personal one will display the material to your own likeing and style that you may have learned it. Naviagating the book may then be a breeze and maybe stick in your mind better since you created it.

Maybe you particularly liked the flow of a handful of textbooks in various disciplines, then you compile important results/formulas in a personal notebook so that you can just take that with you instead of needing many textbooks. Of course this example could be taken to the extreme but, that in essense is what I am talking about.

I do agree however that in the edge of computers and the internet this type of thing might be a tad redundant. However (call me old fashioned) it may be hard to beat a book - consider power outages, portability (in some cases) etc etc.

 

[Studiot]

One type of formula that is useful to record in such a form are those that you do not normally find in a textbook, but come across from time to time.

As an old dog I did try to pass on such in another forum by starting a "tips and tricks" thread with the little gem below, but unfortunately the thread developed a deal of moss. For a personal record you could filter the moss out.

A very simple but useful formula for making a non standard resistor by adding a parallel resistor to a standard one.

$${R_1} = \frac{{{R_2}{R_D}}}{{{R_2} - {R_D}}}$$


R₁is the required shunt resistor

R_D is the desired non preferred value

R₂ is the (next) higher preferred value

 

[Livethefire]

Thats actually an excellent point! Its happed to me quite a lot... I look for a long time for a particular expression that I learnt, or liked to use in a topic and can't find it in any textbook, I have to say that is quite frustrating, but a personal reference would get around that problem entirely.