Engineering & Mathematics Notebook

Friday, 14 August 2009

Knovel Book Collection offers Handy Search Widgets

Last year, Tufts acquired the Knovel (pronounced “novel”) electronic book collection. Our subscription includes over 1,800 handbooks and encyclopedias in all aspects of engineering, from adhesives and coatings to sustainable energy and development. In addition to providing online facsimiles of these handbooks, Knovel offers interactive searchable, sortable, and downloadable tables and graphing calculators as well as the ability to search on properties such as creep, shear strength, velocity, chemical characteristics, and many other search parameters.

While you can search Knovel’s content through its standard online interface, Knovel also offers widgets to initiate searches in other ways. You can embed its search widget (pictured here) in your own web pages, such as your personal blog, and account pages in iGoogle or other services.

Other widgets include a desktop search utility, available for Windows, Apple, and Yahoo! Widgets, and search toolbars and pull-down search engine plug-ins for Explorer and Firefox browsers. Access to all these widgets is available from Knovel’s website.

Posted in Engineering, Mathematics, Research Tools

Friday, 17 July 2009

Martin Gardner Mathematics Books Redux

For 30 years, Martin Gardner (b. 1914), writer and mathemagician, has entertained, informed, and educated readers about the mysteries and fun of mathematical puzzles. His popular columns on “mathematical games” in Scientific American introduced audiences to new concepts such as Penrose tiles, combinations, and knot theory. Gardner’s writings were compiled into many books, published by various publishing houses. Recently, the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) began re-publishing 15 books under the series title, The New Martin Gardner Mathematical Library. The new versions contain updates from Gardner and other experts, game variations, additional proofs, and readers’ commentary.

Puzzle solvers seeking diversions can enjoy some of these updated puzzles by checking out the second volume in the series, Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma cube : Martin Gardner’s mathematical diversions, from the Tisch Library Book Stacks (QA95 .G2975 2008). Here you can divert yourself by reading about soma cubes, golden ratios, squared and magic squares, and other amazing mathematical phenomena.

Posted in Mathematics