Talk:Abramowitz and Stegun

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[edit] "The notation used in the Handbook is the de facto standard for much of applied mathematics today."

Seems a little bogus. It was published as late as 1964. Having looked at the scans, I'm not aware of any major innovations in notation in this work.

I don't see a contradiction between the quote and what you're saying. The notation in A&S was indeed not new, as a matter of fact I think very little in the handbook was new. Nevertheless, the writers had to pick one notation for the various special functions out of several alternatives, and the notation they chose has largely stuck. -- Jitse Niesen 00:38, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)