Customer Reviews

Electric Machinery Fundamentals: Solutions Manual

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have three standard textbooks on electric machines, and the best one by far is Stephen Chapman's Electric Machinery Fundamentals (fourth edition). Chapman has the rare ability to strike a golden balance between theory and practice, and between rigour and informality, such that the theoretical actually illuminates the practical. His discussion on power transformers is the best I have seen anywhere, and he maintains that same high quality throughout the book. Along the way, he has even managed to correct a subtle misconception that I had held for several years concerning Lenz's law. The print quality is superb and the diagrams are sharp and clear. I would like to answer a comment that another reviewer had against this book, namely, that this book uses log or semilog scales. I think we should be grateful that Mr. Chapman had the good judgment to use log or semilog scales, or else we are going to have a book that is hundreds of miles long and wide!

This book (4/ed) seems like a first draft that has since been expanded (copy&paste) and reorganized but never actually finalized. For instance, the order of presention of DC and AC machinery has been reversed since the 1st ed., but regrettably the AC material now placed first uses concepts introduced much later. The first two or three chapter are decent, but then the book falls apart, becoming more of a flawed summary of various machineries.

There are numerous errors throughout; while these on their own do not significantly degrade the quality, they do reflect that little effort has been made since the first edition. The text feels superfical; it leaves very few traces of either true commitment to teaching or of genuine interest in fundamental concepts from the author. (Had the author cut down on the amount of material covered, he'd be in a better position to improve his presentation of the fundamentals in future editions.)

Fitzgerald's classic Electric Machinery (6/ed) eloquently presents fundamental concepts and is better in all aspects, including the narrative.

I actually taught a junior level class from this book. I didn't like it for teaching. It felt like I was doing Electric Machinery Details, not Fundamentals. Curiously, my copy of this book has been floating around work for awhile now, and gets used quite often...mostly because it does have lots of details. Between this book and the Shaum's outline for electric power systems, it seems to get almost everything done.

In short, if you could pick this book up for cheap (say below $40-$50), then I'd consider it. Otherwise I think you can collect a few other books out there out of the used sections and get the same job done.

Just as a matter of record, I think more than $100 for any book is just plain outrageous (and I won't pay it). So you can use that as a gauge for how much this book is worth to you.

As a textbook, for the first electrical machines course, the main advantages of this book are;

1- Sufficient number of worked examples and chapter end problems. 2- Sufficient number of diagrams, well selected and helpful.

The weaknesses

1- The typing mistakes; I have pointed more than 50 of them appeared in the second edition and, repeated in the third edition.

2- The graphical solutions are not drawn with `easy to follow' scale, especially those with log or semilog-scale.

First of all its way too expensive for a textbook, but nonetheless it provides a clear understanding of basic EM. The examples are actually pretty good and on par with most of the homework problems.

There's not much to say when a book is adequate. The material is, for the most part, clearly laid out and understandable.
I purchased this for a course, but we only got to cover a small portion of the book. Reading ahead, it's easy enough to understand the book without supplemental lecture (which is not always the case with some texts).

I'd probably rather purchased the hardback if i'd known i'd be keeping it for reference.

Ordered this book for a class and got it in enough time to stay on track. Was a little shocked to see that such a little book cost so much but if you need it you need it. So far I also like the book. One of the few I am excited about keeping after finishing the class.

Soy estudiante de 4 Año de ingenieria electrica y este libro lo utilizo en mi clase de maquinas electricas. Es un libro bien organizado y facil de leer. El profesor dice que es uno de los mejores libros en su materia.

I ordered this for a class. A number of other students ordered this book from other vendors; however, I was the only one who recieved the correct book as promised.

Nivel al que deben acceder los estuantes de una Universida