Product Description

At McGraw-Hill, we believe Beer and Johnston’s Mechanics of Materials is the uncontested leader for the teaching of solid mechanics. Used by thousands of students around the globe since it’s publication in 1981, Mechanics of Materials, provides a precise presentation of the subject illustrated with numerous engineering examples that students both understand and relate to theory and application.

The tried and true methodology for presenting material gives your student the best opportunity to succeed in this course. From the detailed examples, to the homework problems, to the carefully developed solutions manual, you and your students can be confident the material is clearly explained and accurately represented.

If you want the best book for your students, we feel Beer, Johnston’s Mechanics of Materials, 5th edition is your only choice.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25726 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 816 pages

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.

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.

Customer Reviews

Poor answer key
The book explained the concepts of the subject well enough, but the number of typos in the problems and in the answer key led to many hours of frustration. I was often under the impression I was doing something wrong, only to find out the givens in a problem had incorrect prefixes, or some other error.

What A Wonderful Book!!
I feel very comfortable recommending this splendid book to aerospace, civil, mechanical, and material engineering students. So far, this book has helped me a lot in 3 courses. Theses courses are CE 203 structural mechanics, AE 328 aircraft structures, and ME 471 mechanical metallurgy.

I have admired this book for the following reasons:

1-It has made me interested in my courses
2-It is very easy indeed to comprehend
3-It uses simple examples to explain the concepts
4-Key formulas are shaded
5-It has a good number of solved problems
6-It has a summary at the end of each chapter
7-Answers to even-numbered questions are provided at the end of this book
8-In case that you forget some basic ideas in your CE 201 (Statics), Appendix A of this book gives excellent review in calculating the moments of areas

I am sure that you will find it very useful.

Solid exercise book
This book has a lot of interesting questions, but does not really delve into giving detailed procedures for getting answers. In the practice exercises, it skips a bunch of steps, assuming that the reader would already know what to do. At other points in the book, they painstakingly go through simple concepts. This was frustrating situation at times, which was exacerbated by having an incompetent professor. In the end, this book saved my hide by having good pictures and somewhat straightfoward approaches to mechanics problems. Also, the answers in the back of the book are a HUGE help. From them, you can usually identify a stupid mistake in your answer which could be the result of too many or too few zeros.