Abstract
THE Committee on Mathematical Tables of the U.S. National Research Council was advised that there was a great need for a modern "Guide to Tables of Bessel Functions", as there is scarcely a single field of applied mathematics in which these functions are not used. After more than a year of preparation, this "Guide" was compiled by Profs. H. Bateman and R. C. Archibald, using material on which the former had been working for many years, and has been published as a special number, occupying 104 pages, of the journal Mathematical Tables and other Aids to Computation (1, 205; 1944. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council. 1.75 dollars. London: Scientific Computing Service, Ltd. 10s.). There are two parts, one in which tables and graphs are listed with their authors, and another consisting of an alphabetical bibliography of the authors. In some places there are important formulæ with explanations of how to use them. The notation has been chosen so as to agree so far as possible with that used by English authors. In addition to giving full references to all published tables of Bessel functions, the authors endeavoured to add details of every known unpublished table, but unfortunately the comprehensive Liverpool "Index of Mathematical Tables"prepared by A. Fletcher, J. C. P. Miller and L. Rosenhead was not available, even in proof, until it was too late to give more than a cursory reference, and it was then found that the "Index" referred to more than thirty manuscript tables unknown to the "Guide". The second edition of Watson's "Bessel Functions" appeared too late to be mentioned. A valuable feature of the "Guide" is the information concerning all known errors in the tables mentioned. A number of errata lists appear in print for the first time.
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Tables of Bessel Functions. Nature 155, 603 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155603a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155603a0