Formulas for Stress and Strain

During my years as Structural Calculyst this book was always on my right side on my desk, and when I needed it, it was ready to help me find my way. One really very good Engineer has never found all formulas in his head, instead he should be able of finding them out on good references and really know how to use them all. This is the best reference book you are going to find when formulas is your subject, just buy it! The only book I know better than this one is written in German and few people are able to read in German, so!

I have three editions of this book: the classic 4th edition, the useless 5th edition and this, the 7th edition. The 4th edition has simple format, is easy to use, but lacks methods for more sophisticated hand analyses and is sparse on explanations. The 5th is best used for a doorstop. This edition is an excellent combination of the usefullness of the 4th edition with modern and more advanced methods. The layout of each section has excellent explanatory material and provides the simple 4th edition type equations backed with more involved/advanced formulas which are very useful. My hat is off to the authors. This is probably the best reference for those nasty stress and deflection hand calculations we all have to do from time to time.

Roark's has been and remains an excellent resource for the structural engineer and designer regardless of the edition. This is a referance I use on a daily basis. Typically the first book I reach for.

THIS IS NOT A REVIEW ON THIS BOOK --- THIS IS A COMMENT FOR MARKETPLACE SELLERS FOR THIS BOOK AND ALL ENGINEERING BOOKS --- YOU NEED TO LIST WHICH EDITION YOU ARE SELLING, AS THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THE BUYERS TO KNOW! DIFFERENT EDITIONS CAN BE IN DIFFERENT UNIT SYSTEMS, AND MOST PEOPLE ONLY WANT TO HAVE A PARTICULAR EDITION (FIRST, LATEST, ETC)! --- THANKS!

A very usefull reference book for the practising structural or mechanical engineer. However it could be significantly improved by some modernisation and rationalisation ie: removing references out-dated information and references from the 1920's and 1930's,etc. Also by standardising variables and equations, eg: the variable for the width of a section may be 'b' in one chapter 'd' in another, also 'tw' may represent flange thickness rather than web thickness, etc. The book examples are all in U.S. (lbs, feet) units, annoying the European (N, m) user, and may start on one page, then be interupted by 20 pages of tables before continuing on. So the general layout could do with being significantly improved.