Ceramics always was a broad field and now as the Like my predecessor I have provided only defini boundaries continue to expand it is one of the truly tions. No effort has been made to include pronuncia interdisciplinary areas. This publication, in its re tion, derivations, or syllabication of entries. A large vised form, must reflect this. The trend is toward number of acronyms and abbreviations have been more utilization of ceramics as integrated materials included. The text is in fact somewhat hybrid because together with polymers, metals, and other ceramics, many of the entries appear...

As the utilization of ceramic materials is developing at a great pace, so too is the science of ceramics improving the understanding we have about these high-technology materials. New and improved ways of examining and investigating monolithic ceramics and ceramic composites are also being developed and reported at a great pace in a wide-ranging area of the scientific and technical literature. This book has been written with the aim of increas ing the awareness of the general materials worker of developments in modern ceramics and of bringing to a focus how much the study of their hardness...