This practical guide and reference serves as a unified source book for students and professionals, and it provides a solid basis for further studies in more specialized literature. Based Prince's decades of practical experience, it can be recommended as an introduction for beginners in crystallography, as a refresher and handy guide for crystallographers working on specific problems, and as a reference for others seeking a dictionary of basic mathematical and crystallographic terms. The third edition further clarifies key points.
Matrices: Definitions and Fundamental Operations.- Symmetry of Finite Objects.- Symmetry of Infinitely Repeated Patterns.- Vectors.- Tensors.- Data Fitting.- Estimation of Uncertainty.- Significance and Accuracy.- Constrained Crystal Structure Refinement.- The Fast Fourier Transform.
From the reviews of the third edition: "Mathematical Techniques in Crystallography and Material Science brings together common and less familiar mathematical procedures used in studies of the structures and physical properties of solids. This practical guide and reference serves as a unified source book for students and professionals, and it provides a solid basis for further studies in more specialized literature. Based Prince's decades of practical experience, it can be recommended as an introduction for beginners in crystallography, as a refresher and handy guide for crystallographers working on specific problems ! ." (Chimie Nouvelle Societe, Vol. 23 (89), 2005) "This book presents a series of mathematical methods and procedures ! . The material is well set out ! . In a refreshing approach, the references are introduced with a historical flavour. ... This type of book would be particularly useful for students and professionals who are new to crystallography. It would also be a handy guide to materials scientists ! . this book generally fulfils its aims as a practical guide and reference to students and professionals in the field of crystallography." (Dougal McCulloch, Chemistry in Australia, November, 2004)