ASME International Steam Tables for Industrial Use, Second Edition
William T. Parry, James C. Bellows, John S. Gallagher, and Allan H. Harvey. ASME Press, Three Park Ave., New York, NY 10016-5990. 2009. 292 pages. Softcover. $76 ASME member, $95 list. ISBN: 978-0-7918-0280-9.

This is a revised and updated reference book that complements ASME’s Steam Properties software. The book and software are based on the industrial formulations of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam, which sets international standards for water and steam properties. This book was produced by the efforts of the Properties of Steam Subcommittee of the ASME Research and Technology Committee on Water and Steam in Thermal Systems. It contains chapters on units and conversions, thermodynamic properties, and other properties and formulations, and appendices on thermodynamic property formulation and transport property formulations. The authors provide 50 tables and charts, and use both SI and U.S. customary units of measurement. Tables S-4 and U-4 reflect changes adopted in 2007 by the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam for a new formulation for high-temperature Region 5. Several tables have been affected by a new formulation for the viscosity of water and steam adopted by IAPWS in 2008.

COMPOSITE PRESSURE VESSELS: ANALYSIS, DESIGN, AND MANUFACTURING
Valery V. Vasiliev. Bull Ridge Publishing, Box 10698. Blacksburg, Va., 24062-0698. 2009. 704 pages. Hardcover. $120. ISBN 978-0-9787223-2-6.

Composite materials have revolutionized manufacturing, and the aerospace industry has constructed pressure vessels from composites for some time. Materials reinforced with glass or carbon fibers can be much stronger than traditional metal alloys, but that strength is often only in one direction. Explaining the strengths and limitations of using composite materials in pressure vessels is the task Valery Vasiliev has taken on. Vasiliev, a Russian expert on the use of composite materials who has taught in the United States, has written a comprehensive guide to designing these pressure vessels, drawing on real-world examples in various shapes and sizes. Written for engineers developing products for commercial applications, the book is thick with the equations and charts needed to design composite pressure vessels that are as safe as the metal ones they seek to replace.

CRC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MATHEMATICS, THIRD EDITION
Eric W. Weisstein. CRC Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742. 2009. 4,325 pages in three volumes. $495. ISBN 978-1-4200-7221-1.

According to the author’s introduction, the third edition of The CRC Encyclopedia of Mathematics contains 4,300 new entries and 1,000 more pages than the second, published in 2002. Eric Weisstein says he has been compiling the contents of the Encyclopedia since the mid-1980s and had reached 200 pages by the time he entered graduate school in 1990. The current edition of more than 4,000 pages contains nearly 12,000 entries, 1,100 tables, and 4,500 figures. Content is drawn from the continuously updated material published at Wolfram MathWorld, http://mathworld.wolfram.com, a Web site “created, developed, and nurtured” by the author, who is a member of the Scientific Information Group at Wolfram Research, the software company that developed Mathematica. The author is also lead math and science consultant for the CBS television series “NUMB3RS.”

SURFACE EFFECTS AND CONTACT MECHANICS IX
J.T.M. De Hosson and C. Brebbia, editors. WIT Press, c/o Computational Mechanics Inc., 25 Bridge St., Billerica, MA 01821. 2009. 288 pages. $196. ISBN 978-1-84564-186-3.

This book consists of the papers delivered at the latest session of a biennial conference that aims to encourage international discussion of the interplay of applied physics, materials science, computational mechanics, and mechanical engineering. The latest, the Ninth International Conference on Surface Effects and Contact Mechanics, was held last June in Algarve, Portugal. The conference has been held in odd-numbered years in a different European city since 1993. According to the editors’ preface, the papers recount research into surface modification techniques that can increase the resistance of materials to wear and corrosion. Papers consider surface treatments and their environment—the lubrication, speed of sliding or rotation, and other factors that determine wear and corrosion resistance of a material. Eight chapters group papers under such headings as surface treatments, thick coatings, thin coatings, indentation and hardness, and numerical analysis.

THE MATHEMATICAL MECHANIC
Mark Levi. Princeton University Press, 41 William St., Princeton, NJ 08540. 2009. 196 pages. $19.95. ISBN 978-0-691-14020-9.

There are many physical systems that work in two directions. If you apply electric power to a motor, you get shaft power. Apply shaft power to a very similar device and you generate electricity. So it can be at times with mathematics and the physical sciences. At least that is how it appears in The Mathematical Mechanic. The author, Mark Levi, a professor of mathematics at Pennsylvania State University, subtitles his book “Using Physical Reasoning to Solve Problems.” The problems in question are mathematical. Levi’s first case demonstrates how a fish tank with a right-triangular cross-section is a physical system embodying the Pythagorean theorem and also how it implies the law of sines. Topics increase in mathematical complexity as the book progresses to encompass dozens of examples including a derivation of the Euler-Lagrange equation, heat flow and analytic functions, and a bicycle wheel and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.

VISCOELASTIC MATERIALS
Roderic Lakes. Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013. 2009. 480 pages. $125. ISBN 978-0-521-88568-3.

Viscoelasticity is universal. According to the author of Viscoelastic Materials, Roderic Lakes, all materials exhibit a combination of viscous-like and elastic characteristics. At room temperature, synthetic polymers, wood, and human tissue exhibit large viscoelastic effects. So do metals at high temperatures. Lakes, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, points out that “viscoelastic materials are those for which the relationship between stress and strain depends on time.” Perhaps the most familiar viscoelastic property of metals is creep, which is mentioned early on. Chapters are devoted to the “Conceptual Structure of Linear Viscoelasticity,” “Viscoelastic Stress and Deformation Analysis,” “Experimental Methods,” “Causal Mechanisms,” and other topics. The chapter on “Viscoelastic Properties of Materials” includes discussion of polymers, metals, ceramics, and biological tissue. The author says his aim is to make the subject of viscoelastic materials accessible and useful to students in many engineering disciplines.