Engineering Mechanics: Statics

I notice many reviews complaining that this text doesn't have enough information to help you through the many many problems that it contains. While I agree with this statement, this book works on a completely new level, perhaps to the authors intention. First off, it's Statics, so the entire course will be about solving problems engineers often find themselves. This isn't so much a book cluttered with a thousand pages of mostly useless information, it tells you what you need to get started and then expects you to solve the problems logically. My advise to anyone purchasing this book, read the chapters before the classes, they are short and won't take much time. The instructor I had using this book used the lecture time to work out in class assignments via the problems after each section, and then assigned homework to reaffirm what we have learned. The book works better as a workbook than a textbook, it expects that by this point you have taken enough Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry to understand what they're talking about.

As an engineering student, I found this book very appealing. Its step-by-step presentation of various topics dealing with static structures make it clear and easy to understand for a freshman engineer and can also be used for future quick-reference. Its colorful, crisp diagrams give the student a good opportunity to develop their spatial perception of 3 dimensional objects. Finally, the book's use of calculus is limited and doesn't make the subject intimidating for the first year student.