Mechanics of Materials [With CDROM and Infotrac]

This is a comprehensive, enlightening and reader-friendly textbook on mechanics of materials. This excellent book is full of worked examples, illustrations and equations to help students relate to the fundamental concepts in mechanics of materials. The book provides a great foundation in this subject for undergraduate engineers. The book is well organized and well written with clear and easy to follow explanations. The book is especially useful for reference, as it explains the derivations and many forms of complex equations in a step-by-step and simple to understand format. Overall, one of the best books on mechanics of materials particularly for those that need a gentle introduction to stress and strain analysis.

This book is very well written, it is easy to follow and each of the examples are explained in good detail. I would say that overall this is one of the better text books that I have used in my academic career.

I was surprised at how clear and thorough this book was. I read almost the entire book (left out just a number of sections), and if you're like me and need to know the proofs for the engineering models, then this is great. It explained derivations, equation limitations, and problem-solving methods in a very satisfying way - I can honestly say that, because of this book, I have a better appreciation for how engineering methods are developed. Assuming you've studied differential equations and statics, then this book will be just right for you.All the problems have solutions in the back, which was very helpful. However, occasionally I ran into problems that I needed detailed solutions to, so you might need to see your professor about those. Also, I have a strong feeling that maybe 3-4 problems out of the ~100 that I did had wrong or oversimplified solutions- but I could be wrong, or I used different approximation methods. So not counting that tiny minority of aggravating problems, this book is both pleasantly informative and challenging, and it made me continue to like engineering, unlike some other books/classes I've used/taken.

I bought this book as a supplement to my old school text because an engineer can never have enough good resouces in the working world. I chose it after much research as it was well recommended as THE BOOK to have. I have found it to be an excellent reference book. Most all the homework problems have answers in the back as a check. The publishing and editing qualities are excellent.

I guess I can see some criticism from a mechanical enineers point of view for lack of fatigue failure analysis. But this book is mainly written for the beginning undergraduate for stress and strain analyis. It is by far one of the handiest and most well written books on the subject that I have come across. If you want fatigue life buy a Shigley book. If you want the basic understanding, Timoshenko is wonderful.