Any current or past engineering course students out there with recommendations for any good books for studying Mechanics/Strength of Materials? I am currently in the ACET program and am having difficulty in this mechanics course which only listed College Algebra as a co-requisite and come to find out that the course is based mostly on Trigonometry which I haven't taken yet. To make things worse, the book for the course isn't very detailed and the instructor is new and not very good with English. Also, no tutor is available for this course. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I had a very similar scenario when I took this course (also ACET). For me, Google was my friend. Searching around online usually provided a tutorial or explanation that sufficiently helped me. Wikipedia is good, however some of the explanations are beyond the scope of the beginner.

As far as I know, there are no "For Dummys" books covering this subject. I scrounged up another text book that offered some assistance.

This class turned out being the most difficult of the semester for me, however it was one of the most enjoyable.

-Dave

Thanks for the suggestions Dave, I will definitely give them a shot. This has easily been my most difficult course this semester which happens to be my first. I like the class but feel I would have been more prepared if I had taken Trigonometry and Physics first. Thanks again.

I feel your pain! I'm also a ACET Grad, and been in that same class. Our's was called Statics/Strength of Materials, but sounds similar. Are you doing a Mechanical Technology Degree? Two year or Four? Does "equilibrium of a nonconcurrent coplanar force system" or "area moment of inertia" sound familiar?

The text book we used has the same name as the class and is by Dr. Fa-Hwa Cheng. I can't say that it is the easiest book to understand, but it may give the same information in a different way. Usually I just had to read a section two or three or fourteen times until something clicked. The book should be easy to find. Go to Half.com’s textbook section.

If you are like me and are going back to college eighteen years after High School, here are some things I found useful and might help:

- Are there any other professors that teach this class? They usually don't mind if you sit in on their class to get a different angle on the material.

- Find out when your Professor's office hours are and become a permanent fixture on his door. Usually they can figure out what your particular problem is and help you specifically.

- If there are others who teach the class, but just not this semester, chances are that you will have them for another class in your degree program. Stop in during their office hours and see if they have some time to help.

- See if anyone in any of your other classes has already taken the Mechanics class and still has their notes.

- Sometimes you don't need to understand a problem you just have to be able to do it. There are certain math problems that I don't understand, but I know how to plug number into the problem and get the right answer.

- Get together with a few others in your class, and get to be good friends. Most Likely they are having trouble too. Plus, you will have many more classes (and troubles) over the next two years with the same folks. You will also have to do some group projects and labs, and it is nice to do them with people you know and you can trust to do their part of the work. One of those friends should definitely be someone who just graduated from high school. They just spent a few recent years studying Trig, Algebra, Auto Cad, Calculus, Physics, etc.

-Spend A LOT of time in the library. It is definitely true about the two hours studying for every hour in the class room. Think of your day at school as a work day and make yourself go to the library to study, and do homework. As much of that time as possible should be spent with the friends mentioned above. If everyone understands a little about what is going on, maybe your little bit and their little bit can actually make sense of a problem.

- Don't be afraid of being the only one in class with your hand up. Those 18 year olds are all intimidated by the whole college professor thing, but they are as lost as you are.

I hope some of this helps. I tend to ramble. Good luck and don't give up.

MKC Jeffrey Wood

Thanks for the reply chief. The book you used is the exact book that I am using and it SUCKS! I actually found a mis-print in it the other day! It was new but after chucking it across the room in aggravation a few times I don't think I'll get much for it when I try to sell it back.

I pretty much spend all week as a normal work week even if I don't have class and am meeting with the instructor today to review some things. Another thing I don't like about the class is that we only meet once a week for 3 hours. The reason for this is because the college is small and there is only one professor for this class and this semester he replaced a guy that had been teaching this course for 30 years. Three hours straight of this stuff is mind-numbing.

There are a couple of other kids in the class that help me out when we meet two hours before each class but I know from speaking with everyone in the class that there is only one guy in the class that is really comfortable with the material and he hasn’t shown up yet to any of our early study sessions. I am going to see if I can copy some of his notes this week though.

Anyways, enough of my ranting. Thanks again for your help.

MKC John Bennett

WRT the previous post. Sorry I didn't reply to all your questions. I am in a MET 2-year program and we are currently working on all that stuff. I am going to see if I can find any other books that approach the information from a different angle. Also, I am the "Old Guy" in most of my classes so I do understand what its like to come back to school after graduating HS 16 years earlier but have enjoyed the experience so far. Thanks again.

Hey JB5, how did you make out in the class?

MKC Jeffrey Wood

I ended up with a "C". Not really happy about that as my other grades were all A's but considering the fact that I really didn't have the proper prerequisites I can deal with it. I am currently in Trigonometry and will be taking Physics I in the fall so that I am more prepared for part two of the course which is Strength of Materials. Again, thanks for all the good advice.

JB5 - not sure which degree you're pursuing, but try this link:

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~struct/courseware/461/461_..._lectures_index.html

The site (from the Univ. of Oregon) has step-by-step explanations for solving a wide range of problems.

Also take a look at:

http://www.mdsolids.com/

It's an interactive program ($60.00 for a student registration) that helps with trusses, beam reactions, torsions, etc.

Thanks, those sites should be very helpful when I take Strength of Materials next spring and for Physics next fall. I am not as concerned about Physics because it will be a different instructor who seems to have a very good teaching reputation. I am in a MET program with an option in CAD for ACET.

Good job on the class. Don't beat yourself up over a C. It's a tough class, a C is passing, and in 20 years when you are applying for a job no one is going to ask

quote:

Yea, you have an Associates, but what did you get in Mechanics class?

MKC Jeffrey Wood

MKC, I used this site to squeak by in Physics:

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/HFrame.html

Had a brute of an instructor that led the remaining students to find any/all ways to pass. The site opens up a ton of help topics.

Thanks. I was happy to just get through it. You know how it is though when you are one class away from all A's. Believe I'm over it and already thinking about the next class.

Magic,

I hope I have an easier time with it but I have all those sites bookmarked on the browser for future reference. Thanks again.