Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book crossed my path three times. First was my undergrad thermo course, as a prescribed text. I thought it was a little wordy but the verbosity did not contribute to my understanding. The more they tried to explain the concepts (e.g., on Kelvin's and Clausius' statements of the second law of thermodynamics), the more confusing they became. Needless to say, I didn't do too well. That, however, was another story.

The second time was in my masters studies, and I was the TA for an undergrad thermo course (go figure). I took some examples and exercises for my students. But it still didn't change my opinion on it. Locating anything on thie text would take forever because one would have to peel through layers of words.

The third time, and (hopefully) the last was in my Ph.D. programme. I was flipping through the pages on the advanced topics (Maxwell's relations, Clapeyron's equation, etc.,etc.). Their treatment were simply too trivial, and, with the lack of depth, I promptly put it back to the shelf.

Moran and Shapiro are, no doubt, authorities on thermodynamics, and I respect them very much as experts in their areas. In their writing, it is quite clear that, they assume understanding can be achieved by loading concepts with words, the more the merrier. In my opinion, if is more effective to go through the major concepts succinctly and formally, and go through their implications in more detail. I think, this book fails utterly it this respect.

On the merit of its extensive collection of examples and exercises, I only recommend this book as supplemental. As anything beyond that, however, the shear amount of diction alone will spell frustration for the novice, and redundance for the adept.

Finally, I think Cengel, and Holman do a much better job presenting the concepts at a beginner's level. For the advanced topics (sans stat. mech. and quantum), I would opt for Callen, and Hatsopoulos and Keenan (if you can get your hands on it), with the latter as a reference. Finally, for statistical and quantum mechanics, I would recommend Carter for a starter, and Atkins (Physical Chemistry) will do very well to fill the holes.

Warning, this book is a college level Thermodynamics book written for students who are pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As one reviewer pointed out, this book, unfortunately, will force you to think and will not simply provide you with the formulas necessary to solve all the problems in the back. I purchased this book as a supplement to the required text for the thermo course I was taking. I found it extremely helpful in filling in the gaps left by my text with many thorough example problems. I have recommended this book to our faculty as a replacement to our current text.

To all eng thermo learners: i did an intensive comparison of Cengel4 and MoranShapiro5 whenever on the john. Sonntag6 was out-of-race: book really bad (in comparison to the two in question), so let's not talk about it any further. So the remaining top-sellers, they are *the* most widely-used most popular intro texts (the very first two semesters on thermo for engineering students) available; very comprehensive (~800pages) and extremely modern in didactics, layout, and content presentation. No wonder that they are the two best-sold intro texts. Question: which is better?
Results: Both are 100% equally top choices (and 95% equal in teaching text) and in the end it s only a matter of taste and peripheral preferences. My personal peripheral preference would be the "Which one s the better deal (US $)?". Well, MoranShapiro5 is a little harder to read (it uses one colour only: pics, drawings, and images all in GREEN, aarrgh!) and not as nicely layout as Cengel4. But text is a little more detailed and the examples are much longer, and a bit harder and thus more detailed too! Number of examples seems to be higher too (!?) ("So, if you re not a dummie (=total beginner), go for S/M as text and ref!"). Furthermore, the WileyInternationalEdition comes in HARDCOVER whereas the McGraw-HillInternationEdtion comes in PAPERBACK. Both books feature a student book companion site or online learning center. The Wiley book site has the fantastic "ThermoNet"-website, and instructors will find digitized solutions to all text problems. The McGraw-Hill book site does not offer much neither to the student nor to the instructor. Textwise, Cengel *is* better. Easier to read, grasp, learn, and understand. And apply ("So, the best thermo book for dummies is Cengel!"). VERY VERY nice layout, VERY attractive and fun to work with. An enjoyable reading. A bit more fun than Moran's. But as explained, all in all the better deal would be MoranShapiro5. Moran's text is the more serious one: useful as text *and* reference. Cengel's book-for-dummies is very useful for total beginners and poor learners. Well, if you *now* begin to complain that neither Cengel's nor Moran's book pleases you, then you wont find any other good intro tome ('picture book'). These two intro tomes *are* the best, there are no better on the market. Choose one of the two, or dont buy any intro text on eng thermo! If you dont like these two books because eng thermo is too hard for you, then please have a close look at Octave Levenspiel's intro text "Understanding Engineering Thermo". This might be the best to start with then. For you.

I used this text in undergrad thermo and as a reference in grad school and thought that it was a satisfactory book. I don't think that it is a spectacular book, but I was surprised by the negative reviews posted about the book. Thermodynamics can be a frustrating undergraduate course and is often used as a "weed out" course by mechanical engineering departments. Some of the reiviews for this book seem to be written by bitter students who couldn't handle thermo. I encourage shoppers to weed through these reviews when considering buying this book.

I'm a mechanical engineering student at the Ohio State University. Moran is my teacher and this is the book we use. I will say that the material is definetly difficult. I will also say the Dr. Moran demands a lot from his students. For class we meet twice a week for 1.5 hours. Each class we have 3 problems due. It takes me at the very least 3 hours to complete these problems, often 4 or 5. I know that when its all said and done I'll be able to understand any thermo book that I might pick up. I'll also be able to fully evaluate most thermo problems I may encouter in my career. I do wish the book came with hints and number answers to all problems.

This is actually a pretty good book for thermo. While using the book for my undergrad, I'd have to say I did find the course challenging, but I don't think this was the book's fault. (Understanding physically what some terms are, such as entropy, can be difficult in any text.) During my graduate degree, I've found it to be a pretty good reference. I can easily find what I need in it, energy equations, cycles, etc. There is also a lot of examples in this book.

Why so many bad reviews?

I found this text to be quite good, the format of the book was appropriate, with essential concepts highlighted and the explanations are fairly clear.

However what really makes this book stand out is the example problems, lots of them and each one has "Assumptions" listed so you can tell the difference between a real world situation and what's assumed in the example. In general that's what makes this book so good, the authors go to the trouble of pointing out that many of the concepts presented are for idealized situations, and that the real world is different.

This book is alright to use in conjunction with the Feynman lectures on physics, if you want a different explanation of thermodyanmic concepts, while still retaining some of the real world flavor this books problems have.

I have perused a number of thermodynamics texts and this one merits special note. The layout is clear and crisp and extensive problem sets provide the student with the opportunity to develop the "hands-on" approach to thermodynamics that is so critical for doing the job right. I have tried to load and run the "Interactive Thermodynamics v. 1.5" CD programs and problem set and found them to be well-conceived. (one wish is that the graphing capability would include a log (f) vs. 1/T with the accompanying slope, intercept and regression statistics.) The extensive use of both English and SI units as well as the capabilities in the program to switch from one set to another in a "point-and-click" format is well-advised. The writing is straightforward and the coverage is thorough. As noted in the title, this is an ENGINEERING THERMODYNAMICs book concerned with the transformation of heat into work and vice-versa. As such, discussions of chemical and phase equilibria are limited to the last two chapters.

I highly recommend this text. I have used it for many years now and it is as complete and concise as can be. Moran and Shapiro have done an excellent job in developing this text. The concept explanations are concise and technical. The theory is extremely well developed and clearly presented. This book is similar to Incropera's Heat Transfer texts with respect with the theory development and explanations. If you want a book that does more than show you how to do a problem this book is for you. Not only does it show you how, but it tells you WHY. An excellent book!

This book is terrible. I was almost ready to throw it out of my dorm window on several occasions. First off, if you are new to thermodynamics, you will learn practically nothing. Concepts are sort of sprinkled all over the pages, with no coherent development and explanations. The problems are even worse. Most of them have no analogous example, some involve concepts not even presented in the book...assuming they are common knowledge, when in fact that could be the crucial step in solving a problem. In short, you will be lead through a maze and given false directions at every point. As if the authors present student with a challenge and see how well he/she can navigate this mess. Avoid this book at any cost. I haven't seen other ones on the subject, but I know this one is terrible. I'd give it -5 stars if I could.