Customer Reviews

Soil Mechanics Laboratory Manual

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

 

 

(Review updated 1/14/2011)

I have used this book for many years in my Soils & Foundations class that I teach at the University of New Hampshire, and just upgraded to this latest 7th Edition. I was very glad to find that they finally dropped the included diskette that used to be glued into the back, the files on it were very old and frankly worthless, and the "install" routine never worked correctly. I'm pleased my students are no longer paying for it.

In general, this is an OK book that works well with classes that are in a 2-year AAS program, and it would probably suffice in a 4-year Civil Engineering soils mechanics class. The photos and diagrams are good and clear, as are the descriptions. The blank data sheets in the Appendices are a great addition, as long as you don't care about re-selling the book later. In my opinion the graph paper sheets in the back in this edition are also nice, but mostly a waste of expensive paper. The perforations are not very well done, it can be tough to tear out the sheets if you want. I think it would be much better to provide the data sheets and graph paper as PDFs that the students could download from a web page on the Oxford Press website, this would also save a lot of paper and cost of producing the book (hello publishers!! college textbooks are too expensive!!). I also wish this book was spiral-bound so it would properly lay flat when reading the exercises of filling in the data sheets.

Probably the biggest detractor in this book is the errors in a several places, that have been there for many editions. I tried to email the author my comments after the previous edition came out, but apparently he never got it, as the errors are still there in this edition. I'll try again, but meanwhile I just point them out to my students so they don't get caught by them.

Update: this is the last semester I will be using this book. I guess I'm fed up with my students paying for such an expensive book, when at least half of it is wasted paper that they never use. I'm in the process of writing my own for my specific class, meanwhile I have created my own data sheets for the labs, that do not contain all the mistakes in this book. Last year I had a lot of students scan the blank sheets from the book so they didn't have to write on them, so I'd rather they not be plagiarizing, but I guess I can't really blame them.

I have gone through all the experiments carefully,I have found the sequences,the calculations and the method or representing the results in an examplary manner,The simplicity with which the matter has been explained is worth praising.

would somebody be an engineer if the pay was that of a janitor. no! people don't love engineering. they do it for the money all the time. follow your dreams, people, no matter what the risk. quit being averse to it, or you'll die comfortably unhappy.

i think someone outbid me at the last second eventhough i was told i purchased the book and my credit card was charged. i was soon notified that i did not get the book and that my credit would be replaced. no big deal but kind of a bummer.