Apr.,
rg6r.J
BOOK
rials and forming processes) ; characteristics of ceramic solids (crystal structure, noncrystalline solids, structural defects, surfaces and interfaces, and atomic mobilitv) : develooment of microstructure in ceramics (equilibrium diagrams, crystal growth, nonequilibrium phases, grain growth, and microstructure characteristics in various materials) ; and properties of ceramics (thermal, optical, deformation, strength, conductivity and dielectric). Dr. Kingery’s book is a welcome new approach to the subject of ceramics. _I.
\I~AVES IN LAYERED MEDIA, by Leonid
M. Brekhovskikh, translated by David Lieberman and edited by Robert T. Beyer. 561 pages, diagrams, 6 X 9 in. New York,
Academic
Press Inc.,
1960.
Price, $16.00.
English-speaking readers will welcome this translation of the 1956 Russian work of Prof. Brekhovskikh, giving a systematic exposition of the theory of the propagation of elastic and electromagnetic waves in layered media. The six chapters cover: Plane Waves in Layers; Some Applications of the Theory of Plane Wave Propagation in Layered Media ; Plane Waves in Layered-inhomogeneous Media; Reflection and Refraction of Spherical Waves; Wave Propagation in Layers; and The Field of a Concentrated Source in a Layered-inhomogeneous Medium. The book is valuable because it presents a complete picture of Soviet researches in this field. The author presents the theory of propagation of elastic and electromagnetic waves simultaneously, which is advantageous, since the same mathematical methods apply in both cases. HANDBUCH DER PHYSIK (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHYSICS), BAND IX (VOLUME IX), edited by S. Fliigge and C. Truesdell. 81.5 pages, illustrations, 63 X 9; in. Berlin, SpringerVerlag, 1960. Price, DM 198. Issued as Part III of Vol. IX on Fluid Dynamics, this new addition to the monumental Handbuch der Physik covers the following six phases of this subject: Analytical Theory of Subsonic and Supersonic Flows (Menahem Schiffer); Thkorie des ondes de choc (Henri Cabannes); Theory of Characteristics of Inviscid Gas Dynamics (Richard Meyer) ; Linearized Theory of Unsteady Flow of a Compressible Fluid (R. Timman); Jets and Cavities (David .Gilbarg) ; and Surface
NOTES
309
Waves (Wehausen & Laitone). Five of the monographs are in English, the sixth is in French. The index is published both in German-English and English-German. Each treatise is a thorough, scholarly discussion, well illustrated and well organized: the bibliographies accompanying each article are selective, voluminous, and should be invaluable to those wishing to pursue the subject further. It is impossible, in a review of such a work, to cover all the papers in detail. Instead, the reviewer will attempt to deal with one paper -that on surface waves-as an example of the others. Here the authors deal with fluids subject to a gravitational force, and, in most cases, there exist surfaces between two fluids of different densities. After an introductory section, the problem of mathematical formulation is discussed, for coordinate systems, equations of motion, boundary conditions at an interface, boundary conditions on rigid surfaces, and other types of boundary surfaces. From here, the authors move on to progressive waves and wave velocity, energy, momentum, etc. Nearly 200 pages are then devoted to the theory of infinitesimal waves; in this section the authors cover group velocity, special boundary problems, gravity waves in the presence of surface tension, waves in a viscous fluid, etc. Shailow-water waves are treated in the next section, both linear and nonlinear theories, and the final chapter sets forth exact solutions for some kinematical theorems, for waves in heterogeneous fluids, for transformations of the boundary-value problem, etc. The bibliography for this monograph covers 20 pages, and there are 56 illustrations, including an excellent reproduction of seven particle trajectories in progressive and standing waves. No research library of any standing can afford to be without this up-to-date, authoritative Handbuch. FINITE-DIFFERENCE METHODS FOR PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS, by George E. Forsythe and Wolfgang R. Wasow. 444 pages, diagrams, 6 X 9 in. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1960. Price, $11.50. An account of the more important aspects of finite difference methods for partial differential equations is given in this volume.