Customer Reviews

Mechanics of Materials

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I guess I can see some criticism from a mechanical enineers point of view for lack of fatigue failure analysis. But this book is mainly written for the beginning undergraduate for stress and strain analyis. It is by far one of the handiest and most well written books on the subject that I have come across. If you want fatigue life buy a Shigley book. If you want the basic understanding, Timoshenko is wonderful.

I know that this is considered THE mechanics of materials textbook. And paging through it, you can see that the text and figures are very well done, with every effort made to make the material clearly accessible. So in this respect, the book shines. My main objection with this text is its content. Every imaginable method of beam analysis is presented, and the tendency is to treat every stress problem as some sort of beam. Thus if you're a civil engineer designing beams, you'll probably like this book. But if you are a mechanical engineer, responsible for designing mating parts with complex geometries, you'll be sorrily disappointed. Mechanical parts in the real world are not prismatic beams, perfect cylinders, and other utopian forms. They have threads, fillets, holes and other discontinuities that produce stress concentrations -- stress concentrations that have devastating effects in fatigue if not properly accounted for. I know that some will say "Hey, if you want fatigue analysis, get a Machine Design text". But come on, let's be realistic. Many undergrad students will never go on to take such a course, and the fact that well over 90% of real world failures are fatigue failures necessitates that more than 10 pages out of 900 be dedicated to this subject. Also, there is little if any coverage on 3-dimensional stress, plate and shell theory, plasticity, tensors, and a ton of other stuff that is not overly complex, but is used everywhere in the real world. I don't care how "elementary" the book claims to be. If it's over 900 pages, it should cover these important topics. Maybe someday we'll have more practicing engineers writing textbooks -- textbooks that treat real life problems, rather than fictional, academic idealizations.

Have used this book as a resource for many classes. All of my professors said this is "The Book" for basic Mechanics, and I would agree with them.

Granted, Fatigue, Failure are Buckling analysis are fairly limited. Other advanced topics such as vibrations, FEM and plate theory are not covered. That's because this is a fundamental text, but don't let that fool you. The depth covered and the clarity of presentation is amazing for a Mechanics textbook.

If your looking for more complex analysis, get one of Timoshenko's books (the father of modern mechanics). Really, this book is primarily Timoshenko's work, Gere helps make it understandable. For the FEM, a good book is a difficult find.

This is the best selling Mechanics book for a reason. There has only been minor changes since the original Timoshenko-Gere 1972 version. If your professor does not use this book, he has not been teaching long enough.

This is one of the best books for getting started on even tough concepts. For the beginner and expert alike, this book serves as a comprehensive reference on the basics. Keep it on the shelf and you will refer to it many many times. Only the price is a little too steep for a student. Wish that would come down in the future.

This is a great book with ton of examples and very clear text. I recommend it to everyone who is learning or teaching this material.

I am a civil engineering student who just finished a course in stregth of materials with this text. I found the book fairly easy to follow with good example problems. My main complaint is that the authors consistantly referred to diagrams and figures that were on different pages, causing the reader to flip back and forth. Sometimes the figures were 5 or 6 pages back. This interrupted the continuity of the text, making it more difficult to read. Otherwise, I feel the book is excellent. (If you care, I got an A- in the course. Take this however you want to)

Excellent resource for Mechanical and Civil engineers.
Covers advanced topics such as plasticity, composite materials and eccentric loading.

Very well organized, complete in its explanations of difficult material. MUCH better than Crandall, Dahl, and Lardners "Intro to the Mechanics of Solids". Graphics are clear, text is easy to read (as easy as it is to read about deformable bodies, stress analysis, etc.).

Begin as an ameteur and after spending time with all the resources in this book you can design with confidence. Each theory is broken down, well layed out, useful pictures, and tough problems, but with answers! Misses a star because it somewhat incorrectly places maximum bending stress under a load, a common error among authors. Also, fails to show short cut routes.

i have been study this book for three years i think this book very useful to me when i solve the problem if this method is correct or not i dont know do i have any correct solution if you have any solution i can study more deeper and widely please message to me quickly thank you