Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics (Macintosh Set) [Hardcover]

Ferdinand Pierre Beer (Author), E. Russell Johnston (Author), George H. Staab (Author), J. Brooks Breeden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1997 | ISBN-10: 0078471265 | ISBN-13: 978-0078471261 | Edition: 6th Bk&Dk

Beer/Johnston is among the leading books because it is clearly written, contains thoughtful, worked-out examples, excellent and plentiful homework problems, and is error-free. Conceptually accurate and thorough, there are no typos or misprints in this text. This new edition features an interactive software program, packaged free to students in the back of the textbook, and is the most extensive and thorough Beer/Johnston revision ever done.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

RETIRED - SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO HOME ADDRESS! --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1280 pages
• Publisher: William C Brown Pub; 6th Bk&Dk edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0078471265
• ISBN-13: 978-0078471261
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,707,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written but..., September 7, 2002

By 

Vijay Krishna (Chennai, TN, India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics (IBM Set) (Hardcover)

I cannot deny the fact that this is a well-written book. But the authors had a way of getting on my nerves for the gradation between the examples and the exercise problems was too steep that if you did not grasp the underlying concept in the first place, you never ever will understand it. Most of my friends felt that way too.

However that does not mean that the book is not good. At times you will be flabbergasted at how well the authors can push a difficult concept through. The section on 'Dynamics' was perhaps one of the best in contemporary entry-level texts on the subject.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A poor example of engineering mechanics textbook, June 22, 2004

By 

Greg Freeman (Gainesville, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics (Hardcover)

I was forced into purchasing this group of books for my university engineering program as all of the homework problems required were straight from this book.

Additionally, the books were packaged with schaums problem sets that were particularly useless (schaums outlines are usually excellent, but their problem sets did not contain all of the detail and had nothing extra to offer over Beer and Johnston's textbook) and therefore a waste of my money.

With that said, the only redeeming value of this book is the sheer number of exercises and answers (numerical answers with no explanation, however).

The writing quality suffers what english majors call overuse of passive voice. Overuse of the words "is," "will," "are," etc. characterize this style. With the lack of acting verbs in sentences, the book effectively numbs the mind and puts the reader to sleep. This passive use of verbage also serves to take the emphasis off of the important parts of sentences.

Aside from stylistic issues with the english language, the book also suffers from a lack of vision. The authors did not provide a good methodology to approaching problems at all. They hint at it, by telling the student to draw pictures. However, in examples, the authors jump from one step to the next without much explanation of how a person would discover the techniques themselves. This makes the homework problems particularly difficult when a completely different approach than the one in the examples is required.

There are also derivation and explanation issues. For instance, in the handling of the precession of free bodies (this example sticks out in particular), the author provides a diagram and some equations. However, students cannot precede merely from what the author explained. The student, in order to approach the problems, must assume the validity of the vector diagrams and their relationships, along with equations, seperately. The diagrams and equations WERE NOT UNIFIED in the discussion. This gives the impression that the authors seperately wrote different parts of the book, and later simply pasted the pieces together without any greater plan.

I would not recommend these books as something colleges should use.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, November 29, 2005

By 

a reader "stoso80" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vector Mechanics for Engineers, Statics and Dynamics (Hardcover)

This is really a great book in a hard to grasp subject.It is easy to follow ,has a lot of excellent sample problems and examples ,student-friendly and it is ideal for selfstudy.