Customer Reviews

Engineering Mechanics , Dynamics (Volume 2)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

this books really needs more examples that aren't so vague and difficult to understand. They could really try and make it easier to understand in the literature aspect of the book to. The solutions manual absolutely SUCKS. This book does not help what so ever but does guarantee to confuse you. If you could find me a better solutions manual please let me know because I would like to order it. Thank You

You'd better hope you've got a good professor for dynamics, because this book is absolutely no help. It gives proofs for most equations, but doesn't seem to think any amount of example problems are necessary. I have the bootleg copy of the solutions manual for this book and the author solves most of the problems with bizarre calculus that isn't discussed in the chapter at all.

To top it off, the set (Statics and Dynamics) was $180 at my college bookstore. Pool your money with your classmates, buy one copy of each, and xerox the problems. You will not miss anything.

This text book is extremely poor...Each section of new material has about 1 to 2 pages dedicated to it, even though it needs about 20 pages. This book seems to be a reference manual for Dynamics professors, not a learning tool for undergrads. Thank God our professor recycles the same homework problems so we can get last years answers! As other have noted, there are not enough examples...So there's not enough examples and the book is way too short for such a complex subject. So why does it cost almost 100 bucks? Well life is full of mysteries and this book doesn't help much in unraveling many of them.

Other reviewers have left their disgust of the book to a basic, if I may summarize, "it doesn't explain anything" carping. Now, of course, it should be understood that textbooks are a supplement to lecturing in a classroom setting, so, it should be without mentioning that learning material like dynamics would be rather difficult without an ample professor leading the way.

With that said, I believe this text is amazing. It is simply one of the better texts I've gone through so far and not simply due to my advantage. My advantage being that my professor was L.G. Kraige, the co-author and future author of the 6th edition (the distinguished Dr. Merian passed away in 2000). Dr. Kraige never went far beyond the text or elaborated any further than what was provided. And rightfully so - if you are not able to pick up some of this material from what you read, it is best that you take a few steps back (maybe back to statics, maybe to physics, maybe to grade school) and start again. Dynamics is a difficult subject to move through without some form of official lecture and having someone offer their own tips and hints is a necessity for your individual success.

The book is thorough and the appendices cover shades of older material that you may not remember fully - I know I had to review mass moments of inertia on several occasions and Appendix B was just enough to get me back on target. The problems for each article are very well formulated and clearly presented. As with many advanced texts, not all of the topics or questions are covered explicitly during the articles, but at this point in the physics/engineering game, it is a must for a student to begin to intuitively solve problems based on the basics that are presented.

Again, this book is wonderful, but needs to be complemented with an ample professor. I was very lucky to have Dr. Kraige as my professor and appreciate the text all the more.

I am currently a student and am using this book to try and learn something about dynamics. The sample problems are great and easy to follow, BUT the rest of the questions i have found to be nothing like the sample problems, and are solved in a different manner. Many of my other fellow students agree, and as our lecturer is not very good i have to now RESORT TO BYING ANOTHER BOOK, very dissapointed and [$] out of pocket. Thanks alot Meriam

Prof. Meriam FAILED in conveying the information required to DO dynamics problems. The examples skipped many steps and were minute relative to the problems provided. You better buy another book if you wish to learn somehing about dynamics. I feel bad for the tree that sacrifiecd itself to a totaly worthless cause. YES, I am VERY disappointed with this book...a worhtless invvestment. No wonder many feel my pain with this text.

I took to reading this book because I enjoyed the book on Statics by the same author. I was not disappointed, but I thought Dynamics was covered much better in Beer & Johnston.

If I could rate it 0 stars, that's what I would give it. I'm a graduate student at UC Berkeley and I was taking an undergrad dynamics course. The book was utterly dense and really confusing. The only good thing about this thing were the pictures.

I'm studying Dynamics as one of my prelim exam topics and I sure as heck am NOT using this book. Try Engineering Dynamics: A Primer by O'Reilly. It's a much better book sans color pictures.

In fact, right after I finish writing this review, I'm selling this book on Amazon Marketplace!

Oh, did I say this book sucked... no, it's great- ---- buy mine!

The authors treat this topic with the same dense, obtuse, poorly worded approach they used to write the Statics text. If you ever want to use your textbook except to do assigned problems out of it (that is, you want to learn from it by reading it) don't expect it to help you much, if at all.

This book is aweful, by far the worst book I have ever cracked the pages of. The only way a student could learn dynamics in a class that uses this book is to get a great professor and throw the book in the garbage. If you are considering buying it- DONT. Instead spend your $100 on a dog, you will learn just as much about Dynamics from that. Good luck