Customer Reviews

Mechanics of Materials (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac)

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

 

 

I was surprised at how clear and thorough this book was. I read almost the entire book (left out just a number of sections), and if you're like me and need to know the proofs for the engineering models, then this is great. It explained derivations, equation limitations, and problem-solving methods in a very satisfying way - I can honestly say that, because of this book, I have a better appreciation for how engineering methods are developed. Assuming you've studied differential equations and statics, then this book will be just right for you.

All the problems have solutions in the back, which was very helpful. However, occasionally I ran into problems that I needed detailed solutions to, so you might need to see your professor about those. Also, I have a strong feeling that maybe 3-4 problems out of the ~100 that I did had wrong or oversimplified solutions- but I could be wrong, or I used different approximation methods. So not counting that tiny minority of aggravating problems, this book is both pleasantly informative and challenging, and it made me continue to like engineering, unlike some other books/classes I've used/taken.

This book is very well written, it is easy to follow and each of the examples are explained in good detail. I would say that overall this is one of the better text books that I have used in my academic career.

The coverage of the material is excellent. The discussions of the various techniques are rational and insightful. The author is a seasoned engineer/academician who really understands mechanics, and knows how to convey its flavor to the reader.
Timoshenko's classic "Strength of Materials" covers most topics that are relevant to an engineer; however it comes with a "bag of tricks" and is difficult to follow. Gere's book takes a step back by eliminating certain advanced topics, and methodically explains the principles and techniques of mechanics.

I used this book to take a mechanics of materials course online. The book is well written and easy to understand, a very important attribute since I didn't have a TA or professor to ask questions. There are many well explained examples. The book was also a valuable reference as I continued my engineering studies. It is a book that I will certainly keep for the future.

This textbook made up for my (nice, but) boring professor. He'd rush through several important lessons, so I'd just read them and teach myself from this book. Every chapter had excellent examples that were thoroughly explained, and I didn't find any errors. Answers are in the back, so if you're motivated, you can even learn Mechanics of Materials without any guidance from a professor.

I am an instructor of an introductory course on mechanics of materials. I used this textbook by Gere and another textbook with the same title by Roy R. Craig, Jr. as my references. I find the textbook by Craig has a much better content structure than this text. For example, this text splits Stress Concentrations, Energy Methods and Indeterminate Problems into subsections of different chapters which is rather annoying. These topics should be a complete chapter of itself for clarity.

Text required for Mechanical Eng. class. Good intro text and will provide quality reference in the future.

This book is awful. The writing style is terrible. I think the author needs to learn how to speak english. Here's a quote from the book:

"Having found the principal stresses and their directions for an element in plane stress, we now consider the determination of the maximum shear stresses and the planes on which they act."

Instead he SHOULD have written:
"We will now find the maximum shear stresses."

The whole book is like this. It is far too wordy. This book could be a lot smaller if the author didn't try to make everything so complicated.