Mechanics of Materials (Pws-Kent Series in Engineering) by James M. Gere, Stephen P. Timoshenko Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Mechanics of Materials (Pws-Kent Series in Engineering)
Book Review: Same old thing... new questions
Summary: 3 Stars
Book is good for most average students. Clear text structure, ample iilustrations and comprehensive worked out examples. However, since I also own a copy of the 4th example, these was not much change to the basic text. Just new reworked questions and a few different examples. A good book for an average student and certainly a good buy. But if you have the 4th edition, maybe you wouldn't need a new one.Book Review: Beams, Beams, and more Beams
Summary: 3 Stars
I know that this is considered THE mechanics of materials textbook. And paging through it, you can see that the text and figures are very well done, with every effort made to make the material clearly accessible. So in this respect, the book shines. My main objection with this text is its content. Every imaginable method of beam analysis is presented, and the tendency is to treat every stress problem as some sort of beam. Thus if you're a civil engineer designing beams, you'll probably like this book. But if you are a mechanical engineer, responsible for designing mating parts with complex geometries, you'll be sorrily disappointed. Mechanical parts in the real world are not prismatic beams, perfect cylinders, and other utopian forms. They have threads, fillets, holes and other discontinuities that produce stress concentrations -- stress concentrations that have devastating effects in fatigue if not properly accounted for. I know that some will say "Hey, if you want fatigue analysis, get a Machine Design text". But come on, let's be realistic. Many undergrad students will never go on to take such a course, and the fact that well over 90% of real world failures are fatigue failures necessitates that more than 10 pages out of 900 be dedicated to this subject. Also, there is little if any coverage on 3-dimensional stress, plate and shell theory, plasticity, tensors, and a ton of other stuff that is not overly complex, but is used everywhere in the real world. I don't care how "elementary" the book claims to be. If it's over 900 pages, it should cover these important topics. Maybe someday we'll have more practicing engineers writing textbooks -- textbooks that treat real life problems, rather than fictional, academic idealizations.Book Review: Mechanics of Materials, 4th ed.
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a civil engineering student who just finished a course in stregth of materials with this text. I found the book fairly easy to follow with good example problems. My main complaint is that the authors consistantly referred to diagrams and figures that were on different pages, causing the reader to flip back and forth. Sometimes the figures were 5 or 6 pages back. This interrupted the continuity of the text, making it more difficult to read. Otherwise, I feel the book is excellent. (If you care, I got an A- in the course. Take this however you want to)Book Review: Mediocre, it could be better
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good book. It's clear and concise and really helps students learn. However, I got this book from my local bookstore for a dollar less than what you're advertising it for and I didn't have to pay credit card and/or shipping and handling fees. The book is good, but the price is not.Book Review: The most to-the-point, concise, clear text on the subject.
Summary: 5 Stars
Very well organized, complete in its explanations of difficult material. MUCH better than Crandall, Dahl, and Lardners "Intro to the Mechanics of Solids". Graphics are clear, text is easy to read (as easy as it is to read about deformable bodies, stress analysis, etc.).