Engineering Statics

Engineering Statics is a fundamentals textbook which serves as the building blocks for future courses in engineering, in particular mechanics of solids. The author has used his many years of experience teaching and his own research in this area to develop a statics book that will give students a better retention of knowledge and create a strong foundation for subsequent courses.

Engineering Statics is distinct in that it resolves the areas that some of the most popular statics textbooks fail. These areas include: a lack or overemphasis on the role of vectors in analyzing structures, a lack of physical feel due to an emphasis on structural problems, and a lack of systematic approach for analyzing statically indeterminate structures. It was with the author's insight into these shortcomings and an understanding of various teaching instruments that this book was created.

The pedagogical method used in this book is based on the premise that students learn more effectively if they can clearly see the relevance of the exercises and scenarios to real world problems.

The book uses five teaching instruments: 

1. Case studies
   Case studies help students learn from historic failures and successes, apply previously-tested knowledge, and realize the intended and unintended social and economic consequences of technology.

2. Short design examples
   Design examples provide students with focused opportunities to improve their skill set.

3. Intelligent formulation problems
   Intelligent formulation problems nurture the ability to identify alternative approaches to formulating the problem.

4. Conceptual questions
   Conceptual questions help to rectify misconceptions and promote long term conceptual understanding of the material.

5. Worksheets
   Worksheets offer students the chance to systematically improve their skill sets. Introductory worksheets offer a large number of simple problems that focus on a specific concept. Once students are comfortable with the individual concepts, the challenge worksheets develop their strategic thinking skills.

About the Author

Sridhar S. Condoor received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is the co-author of Innovative Conceptual Design : Applications: Theory and Applicaiton of Parameter Analysis (Cambridge University Press) and several papers on various facets of design. He currently teaches at Saint Louis University - Parks College of Engineering, Aviation & Technology. 

To download the text of chapter 2 (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format), click on the SampleChapters button below: 

For a complete table of contents, click here.

1. Introduction
2. Position and Force Vectors
3. Equilibrium of a Particle
4. The Moment Vector
5. Equilibrium of a Rigid Body
6. Structural Analysis
7. Shear Forces and Bending Moments
8. The Centroid and the Moment of Inertia

361 pages

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Engineering Statics
ISBN:  978-1-58503-411-6