Customer Reviews

Engineering Mechanics of Solids (Prentice-Hall International Series in Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics)

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

 

 

This book makes a difficult subject even more difficult. While the definitions and general information are good enough, the derivations seem to be very complicated, esoteric, and confusing. This may be appropriate for graduate level (although many of these techniques are obsolete in view of FE analysis) but this book bills itself, and is used mainly for undergraduate deformable mechanics classes. There seem to be a number of mistakes in the book as well. Professors should probably not use this book for an undergraduate level course--find something newer. Undergrads will probably need to get some sort of supplementary outline material that will simplify things.

I used this book for a college course last semester and was very displeased with it. It seems like the book was rushed to print, because there are many errors. Figures are improperly dimensioned or do not reflect the information of the problem statement. At least once the book refers to a stress as a force. There are misprinteed equations within the text. For example, in one case a 3 was printed instead of an "E". In another case a "y" was printed indstead of gamma. Some of the practice problem answers given in the back of the book are incorrect. In the tables listing the dimensions and properties of American standard steel W-shapes, the columns for web thickness, flange thickness and flange width are mislabeled. In the table giving useful properties of areas, the moment of inertia for a thin tube is incorrect as is the location of the centroid of half of a thin tube. One of the less serious, but more glaring errors occurs in chapter twelve. The chapter is titled "Yield and Fructure Criteria" instead of "Yield and Fracture Criteria". This incorrect title is repeated on every page of the chapter. This reveals the quality of editing for this edition of Popov's book.

This book takes a simple topic and makes it impossible to learn and follow along. Problems at the end of the chapter ask you to solve for things that are not even covered in the book. If your teacher is using this book I feel bad for you. Try to buy another book to learn from, and get the homework problems assigned from a friend.

Hello,

I'am a Stress Analyst Engineer and work with Bomardier in Montreal. I've read the book "Mechanics of Materials" a book of Popov, E,P.(ed.1976)( some 585 pages) I'd like to buy one for myself. But I found for 1998 edition "Engineering Mechanics of Solicds" of Popov, E, P too! I confuse! Is it the same emproved book with the change of title or is it a differnt new book of the author! Thanks to confirm me your what's the true! By the way, I wish to make a group order in one way!

JMB.

The concept of the book is good. The content is comprehensive, and Popov does seem to have made an effort to write the book for students. However, the book has just too many errors and typos! A page reference is missing from the Table of Contents, for example. The chapter entitled "Yield and Fructure Criteria," misspelling "Fracture" as "Fructure" in big letters, really annoyed me. This book would be near perfect if not for all the errors. I bought the book as a reference but returned it a week later after coming across the mistakes. The book is just edited very, very sloppily. A third edition with these mistakes remedied would be great, but Popov is old and I don't see him doing a 3rd edition. That's a pity.

This book suffers from several major deficiencies. First, it is inherently difficult to follow. The format is designed in such a way that you have to constantly refer back and forth between pages to get all the information you need for an example or derivation. The other thing is the examples are not clear. You find yourself solving the example again because the method isn't clear. In this way, I find the book extremely frustrating. Even after the problems with the contents, the book has errors. Lots and lots of errors. Just look on the inside front cover. "Principal Elastiac Equations"? I checked the dictionary, and I don't know what elastiac is. Or Ch. 12: "Yield and Fructure Criteria"? Is that a new term for the fracture of fructose? Finding all the errors is kind of fun, so if you're into that, get this book. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

The good: This is a comprehensive book. The bad: It has tons of mistakes. There are typos galore. The most egregious one occurs in the chapter entitled "Yield and Fructure Criteria." That's right, "Fructure." Pray tell, what exactly is "Fructure"? That's what's printed in big letters. The proofreading is very, very, very sloppy. Maybe these mistakes are more a function of editing deadlines rather than with Popov himself, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a bad volume that you shouldn't waste your money on. I used this book as a text and was very disappointed. Save your money and buy Beer and Johnston or Craig instead. Or even Popov's earlier work, Mechanics of Materials, which I liked a lot. Engineering Mechanics of Solids is just horrible in its mistakes.

there's a reason why this book was last printed in 1998. it's just a very confusing book that doesn't explain the material very well,

Very classic text in Mechanics of Materials and my favorite edition is the second edition of Mechanics of Materials, 1976 (My all time favorite mechanics book). I own all Popove's mechanics books (And some 30 books in mechanics of solids) and they are really top notch level in their field. Despite the typos that other people pointed out (Which is not Popov mistake), I think this is one of the best texts in mechanics of materials and well deserve to look at by all engineering students who are studying this course. No matter what book is your text, you need to look at this one.