Other What Are Your Favorite Textbooks for Chemical Engineering?

[MexChemE]

Just got two great additions to my collection!

Treybal's Mass Transfer Operations, which is easily the best textbook I've read regarding unit operations; it was really hard to obtain a brand-new copy, as it had gone out of print since 1988. I also got Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, which is as legendary as BSL as a chemical engineering reference, and with a 65% discount off its retail price, thanks to an offer made to my school's ChemE department.

Hope you're all doing great!

 

[S.G. Janssens]

Just got two great additions to my collection!

Congratulations. Few things are more satisfying than obtaining a copy of a book that has gone out of print a long time ago.

Hope you're all doing great!

I hope the same for you.

Incidentally, is the picture in your avatar a refinery? It reminds me a lot of the refineries in Pernis (The Netherlands), not far from where I live. They are beautiful at night and I love the smell, when the wind is right.

 

[MexChemE]

Incidentally, is the picture in your avatar a refinery? It reminds me a lot of the refineries in Pernis (The Netherlands), not far from where I live. They are beautiful at night and I love the smell, when the wind is right.

Indeed, it is. That's Ingeniero Antonio M. Amor refinery in Salamanca, Guanajuato, operated by PEMEX.

I do believe chemical plants at night are some of the most impressive man-made sights to behold. And most people I know would agree with us.

 

[Andy Resnick]

Here's about half of my library:

I won't list them all... Besides the 'standards' and textbooks, my top-20 list is:

Books that could/should be used as standard texts:
Theoretical Physics (Greiner, 9 vol)
Interfacial Transport Phenomena (Slattery)
Introduction to Many-Body Physics (Coleman)
Introduction to Error Analysis (Taylor)
Life in Moving Fluids (Vogel)
Advanced Light Microscopy (Pluta, 2 vol)
Mechanics of Motor Proteins and the Cytoskeleton (Howard)
Mechanical Vibrations (Rao)

Oddball titles:
Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics, 2nd edition (2 vol)
The Geometry of Biological Time (Winfree)
How to Build a Working Digital Computer (Alcosser, Phillips, and Wolk)
Non-Newtonian Calculus (Grossman and Katz)
The Tragicomical History of Thermodynamics 1822-1854 (Truesdell)
Fission Product Yields and their Mass Distribution (Zysin, Lbov, Sel’chenkov)
A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (RAND Corporation)
Infrared Reflectance of Aircraft Paints AFGL-TR-84-0307
Urological Oddities (Dakin)

Large-format photo/illustrations:
Nephrons and Kidneys (Oliver)
The Martian Landscape NASA SP-425
Mission to Earth: LANDSAT Views the World NASA SP-360

 

[Demystifier]

I'm a book addict.

Me too. I have much more books than I will ever be able to read.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

I've heard a perhaps apocryphal story that there was a well known math professor whose office had the typical wall of bookshelves. He dusted the shelves regularly, but on them he kept only one book. (This was obviously a symbolic statement aimed at his students and colleagues. )

My personal science library is mostly in closed cabinets and boxes. It has made an outstanding contribution to the quality of my life through the exercise it gave me as I packed and un-packed it, carried from apartment to apartment, up and down stairs, into and out of buildings.

 

[Demystifier]

but on them he kept only one book.

Which one?

 

[vanhees71]

I'm pretty sure it must have been a physics book, because if you have only one book to live with it must be a really interesting one, which leads to the conclusion that it must be one about QFT .

 

[Demystifier]

I'm pretty sure it must have been a physics book, because if you have only one book to live with it must be a really interesting one, which leads to the conclusion that it must be one about QFT .

He was a math professor, but I suspect that it was neither math book nor science book. A person with only one book must be a very practical person, so it must have been some very practical book. Perhaps a phone book or the air condition manual?

 

[vanhees71]

On the other hand mathematicians don't like practical things. So why should he have a practical book?

 

[Demystifier]

On the other hand mathematicians don't like practical things. So why should he have a practical book?

But they don't like physics either (because it's too practical, compared to math). It is also known that mathematicians are more religious than scientists are, so could it be the Bible?

 

[Mondayman]

Me too. I have much more books than I will ever be able to read.

It's a compounding issue as well. For every one book I read or work through, I order ten more from amazon. Particularly the old used hardcopies that people sell for dirt cheap.

 

[jasonRF]

It's a compounding issue as well. For every one book I read or work through, I order ten more from amazon. Particularly the old used hardcopies that people sell for dirt cheap.

I have the same problem. I try to justify it to myself this way: the cheap used copies of old books are typically the cost of a magazine or two, so if I get a magazine worth of enjoyment from it then it was a good purchase. The books I order are often books that I cannot get from my work library so I haven't had an opportunity to look through them; if they aren't worth keeping I give them away (just like discarding a magazine). Expensive books are a different story, of course ...

 

[S.G. Janssens]

On the other hand mathematicians don't like practical things.

But they don't like physics either (because it's too practical, compared to math).

My favorite books are about mathematics that is both practical and beautiful. It makes me very happy when I see that these two qualities align, but it seems rare.

 

[Demystifier]

My favorite books are about mathematics that is both practical and beautiful. It makes me very happy when I see that these two qualities align, but it seems rare.

Some examples?

 

[S.G. Janssens]

Some examples?

1. Finite-dimensional Perron-Frobenius theory in Matrix Analysis and Linear Algebra (2000) by Meyer
2. Functional Analysis (2nd edition, 1982) by Kantorovich and Akilov
3. Volume I of An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications (3rd edition, 1968) by Feller (a Croatian giant)
4. An Introduction to Numerical Analysis (2nd edition, 1989) by Atkinson
...

Maybe it is not as rare as I thought

EDIT: For those less familiar with these subjects, let me briefly indicate one practical topic as it appears in each of the above references 1-3, assuming that for 4 this is obvious.

1. Google's PageRank algorithm.
2. The Newton-Kantorovich theorem for the iterative solution of nonlinear systems, used in e.g. bifurcation theory and optimization.
3. Discrete probabilistic models (such as Markov chains) in statistical mechanics and macroeconomics.

Of course each book contains many more topics than just these. Also, there are relationships. For example, the algebraic treatment of Markov Chains relies heavily on Perron-Frobenius theory.

 

[Demystifier]

3. Volume I of An Introduction to Probability Theory and its Applications (3rd edition, 1968) by Feller (a Croatian giant)

I am a Croat, but I had no idea that Feller was a Croat too. Thank you for that information, you made my day.

 

[SredniVashtar]

I have the same problem. I try to justify it to myself this way: the cheap used copies of old books are typically the cost of a magazine or two, so if I get a magazine worth of enjoyment from it then it was a good purchase.

So, it's true! I do have a twin brother out there in the world!
This "it costs like a magazine" is driving me broke. The 0.01 pounds books on Amazon, which turn out to be less than 5 euro shipped at home are too big a temptation to be able to resist. And now I also have to spend money for an additional bookshelf (maybe two).
I have never bought that many magazines in the first place!

There is a silver lining to this compulsive disorder though: when I am faced with some sugary or high cholesterol treat my brain goes "Wait, this will cost you as much as a physics book from the 60s! What would you rather have?".

Books: food for the mind.

 

[Logical Dog]

Books on computer (picture):

Books in hardcopy:
what is mathematics? R. Courant.
Schaums outlines of logic.
Book of proof.
How to prove it.
How to study for a mathematics degree (lol). lara alcock
How to think about analysis. lara alcock.
Schaums outline of computer architecture.
A level physics book.
A level maths, mechanics modules books.
Introduction to mathematical philosophy, Bertrand Russel.
Elias zakons lecture notes. they are free and can be found here: http://www.trillia.com/products.html
Discrete mathematics normal L biggs.

 

[Demystifier]

Books on computer ...

And they are all, of course, acquired legally.