Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics (Hardcover)

by Ferdinand Beer (Author), Jr.,E. Russell Johnston (Author), Elliot Eisenberg (Author), William Clausen (Author), David Mazurek (Author), Phillip Cornwell (Author) "Mechanics can be defined as that science which describes and predicts the conditions of rest or motion of bodies under the action of forces..." (more)
Key Phrases: distributed forces, coordinate nixes, new centroidal axes, Sample Prob, Solve Prob, Plane Motion of Rigid Bodies (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The new Eighth Edition of Vector Mechanics for Engineers: Statics and Dynamics marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Beer/Johnston series. Continuing in the spirit of its successful previous editions, the Eighth Edition provides conceptually accurate and thorough coverage together with a significant addition of new problems, including biomechanics problems, and the most extensive media resources available. Text comes with an outstanding media package which includes, Hands on Mechanics, ARIS Homework Management System, which has 300 algorithmic questions and 2600 static questions and YourOtherTeacher.Com

About the Author
Born in France and educated in France and Switzerland, Ferd held an M.S. degree from the Sorbonne and an Sc.D. degree in theoretical mechanics from the University of Geneva. He came to the United States after serving in the French army during the early part of World War II and had taught for four years at Williams College in the Williams-MIT joint arts and engineering program. Following his service at Williams College, Ferd joined the faculty of Lehigh University where he taught for thirty-seven years. He held several positions, including the University Distinguished Professors Chair and Chairman of the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department, and in 1995 Ferd was awarded an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by Lehigh University.

Born in Philadelphia, Russ holds a B.S. degree in civil engineering from the University of Delaware and an Sc.D. degree in the field of structural engineering from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He taught at Lehigh University and Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) before joining the faculty of the University of Connecticut where he held the position of Chairman of the Civil Engineering Department and taught for twenty-six years. In 1991 Russ received the Outstanding Civil Engineer Award from the Connecticut Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Elliot holds a B.S. degree in engineering and an M.E. degree, both from Cornell University. He has focused his scholarly activities on professional service and teaching, and he was recognized for this work in 1992 when the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) awarded him the Ben C. Sparks Medal for his contributions to mechanical engineering and mechanical engineering technology education and for service to the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Elliot taught for thirty-two years, including twenty-nine years at Penn State where he was recognized with awards for both teaching and advising.

Bill holds a B.S. degree in engineering mechanics from Lehigh University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering mechanics from the Ohio State University. Bill is a registered professional engineer specializing in structural dynamics and vibration measurements. He taught for thirty years and served as vice chairman in the Department of Engineering Mechanics at the Ohio State University and has also taught in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

David holds a B.S. degree in ocean engineering and a M.S. degree in civil engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from the University of Connecticut. He was employed by General Dynamics Corporation Electric Boat Division for five years, where he provided submarine construction support and conducted engineering design and analysis associated with pressure hull and other structures. In addition, he conducted research in the area of noise and vibration transmission reduction in submarines. He then taught at Lafayette College for one year prior to joining the civil engineering faculty at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where he has been since 1990. David is currently a member of the American Railway Engineering & Maintenance-of-way Association Committee 15 (Steel Structures), and the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee on Blast, Shock, and Vibratory Effects. He has also worked with the Federal Railroad Administration on their bridge inspection training program. Professional interests include bridge engineering, railroad engineering, tall towers, structural forensics, and blast-resistant design. He is a licensed professional engineer in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

Phil received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University in 1985 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1987 and 1989 respectively. His present interests include structural dynamics, structural health monitoring, that is damage detection in structures using changes their vibration characteristics, and undergraduate engineering education. Phil spends his summers working at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he is a mentor in the Los Alamos Dynamics Summer School and he does research in the area of structural health monitoring. He has received an SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award in 1992, the Dean’s Outstanding Teacher award at Rose-Hulman in 2000 and the Rose-Hulman Board of Trustees Outstanding Scholar Award in 2001. Phil is on the executive committee of the Mechanics Division of the American Society of Engineering Education.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1360 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math; 8 edition (May 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0073212229
• ISBN-13: 978-0073212227
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.1 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,172 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 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.

6 of 6 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.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage, October 21, 2002

By A Customer

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

This is the text used in my current undergrad Statics class. Like many of these texts, this book is written so only teachers or students who have already completed the course might understand the explanations and sample problems. If you have a teacher who does not explain the material in an understandable way, like I do, this book will be no help. There is no solutions manual to supplement the few examples given in the chapters.

I have had straight B's in 3 undergrad Phyisics courses, and 2 A's and 2 B's in 3 unergrad Calculus courses and Diff Eq. I am nearly lost with this book and looking for supplemental learning materials.