Pocket Ref

by Thomas J. Glover

This great little book is a concise all-purpose reference featuring hundreds of tables, maps, formulas, constants & conversions AND it still fits in your shirt pocket! Goes where you go!

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Survival, Technical

768 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Velma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Handy little reference to keep around for those times when Google isn't available. Small enough to fit in your junk drawer with the screwdriver, rubber bands, and hardware miscellanea, you might just be able to use it to MacGyver your way out of a jam. Personally, I use the conversion tables most frequently; it's surprising how often I need to convert scruples into drams.

My well-thumbed copy came to me when a good friend died; his wake was held in his home, and those of us in attendance took possession of those of his possessions that had meaning to us. I like seeing his contact info inside the front cover, written in his hand, knowing that he dog-eared the pages and left a bit of himself there.

[Michael Warot · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the ultimate printed reference book. Google essentially replaces it, but for a printed reference... you can't do much better.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book for Christmas and have referenced it several times for some of the most uniquely essential information. Only once, when I had to jump the car because the battery was dead, was I let down that it didn't have the instructions for hooking up the jumper cables. If you want a tiny reference about almost everything you might want to convert, measure, calculate, or guess at, or if you want to know military rank, what types of clouds there are or the area codes for New York, get this book. It is small and portable, but the print is a bit on the small side, so if you are hard of seeing, pocket it with a magnifying lens.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t say I read the whole thing... it’s over 800 pages of tiny, tiny print. But I skimmed enough of it to know it has a plethora of useful (and useless) info in it. The title says pocket, and technically it can fit into a pocket, but it will reside on my bookshelf at the ready for when I need to consult it to find out the airport code for Winston-Salem, NC (INT by the way) or the formula for volume of a sphere. Volume = 4 * pi * r3/ 3.

[Sullivan S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes a great reference for technical work.
When I'm setting up new experiments or helping out a friend, this book does a great job of preventing lectures about "young people always needing computers" because most of the information I'd normally need from the internet is already here. It doesn’t have *everything* I need for my work, but it does have enough to help me survive in both laboratories and construction sites.

[LINDA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fall in love with little books packed with lots of information. Consider me smitten!

p. 70 Insulation Value of Materials (useful in the Architectural field)

p. 258 has a Consanguinity Table which can come to your aid when trying to figure out the correct term for your relation to distant relatives.

p. 639 starts a section on weather. The art of predicting weather interests me, simply because the weather forcasters are tryically wrong (so I refuse to watch it), and I like to know as much as I can so that I can do my own forcasting!

[Blast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Construction, math, weather, electronics, first aid, knots and just about anything else a person needs to know is in this book. It's probably the one book I want to have with me if I need to rebuild civilization.

[Zak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tiny Wikipedia for your pocket.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this for my husband. He's a welder/fabricator. He was working for a Copper mine; he just left it in his toolbox. One weekend, the mine overseer called him at home; Where's his Pocket Ref book? Did he take it home? The Mine would pay his fuel for him to bring it back. Nope, it should be in his toolbox. If it isn't there, he hasn't a clue where it went. (Another welder who worked there took it home so his bookshop working wife could order *him* one.) Turned out, *lots* of different sections borrowed and returned it. (like, *every* section except the head of mine, and office staff)

[Jeff Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

at my house we call this "the boy book"
every young man that comes our way gets a copy of it
any measurement you need is in here somewhere

a must have for every male in your family.
makes a great stocking stuffer

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a bit outdated, but a neat little book none the less. Fun to flip to random pages and glance at the entry.

[Chris McD · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like the internet in your pocket... but without any ads or opinions. It’s surprising how much info this book contains.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic handy little reference book. Perfect for fieldwork when google isn't available.

[Doug Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you'll ever need to know, from temperature conversion, international shoe sizes, engineering and scientific formulae, etc,. etc., etc..

[Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

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[Brad Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essential guide to being a man

[James Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book.

[Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough.

[Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would not recommend this book to anyone else, not because it is a bad book, but because if you are not interested in a science carrier, because this book is purely science. No Story. Although I would call this book one of the,"All the stuff you never needed to know, but wanted to know anyway." The reason that I rated this book so high is because of the many new things that i learned after reading this book

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reference books, and I love this one because it contains information on so many diverse subjects. Ever been confused by classification of cousins or what type of adhesive to bond plastic to steel with? This is probably the only book that can help with both. I gave it four stars instead of five because I have yet to use it in a practical way, and there are too many tables on bolt strength for my taste.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This pocket reference is often referred to as a little black book.

No other mini-pocket-sized encyclopedia contains as much information concerning the physical world of science. It is an invaluable resource for writers, and anyone taking any kind of science course, or for that matter, anyone who has a job which deals heavily in science.

Buy it.

[Fizzgig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I love to read reference books just for the enjoyment of finding something I don't know. This is the reference book that Grant from Mythbusters is always using. My daughter wanted a copy so I got two. It has a little bit everything in it like clothing sizes, weather icons, connector standards, minerals, military rankings, knots, hydraulic ram capacities, and so forth.

[Cesar]

So far, it's a lot of great information, as i guess you would know. You would think reading it as if it were a novel, page by page is a good idea... don't. Though using it as intended is boring, too. I randomly open it and learn something new, I'm thinking of getting another copy as bathroom reading.

[Lafcadio · Rating 3 out of 5]

About the size of two smart phones stacked, this compact tome contains tables and charts of things you might want to google, when you don't have google.

[Sean Evans]

Pocket ref by Thomas J. Glover (2003), 3rd ed

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pocket ref by Thomas J. Glover (1996), 2nd ed.

[Jonathan]

None

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have book. Incredibly useful on a wide range of topics.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have two copies. One, I carry with me. The second stays on my zombie apocalypse bookshelf.

[Jessica Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

EVERYONE should have a copy of this book. I couldn't believe the variety of useful information packed into this tiny little package!