Engineering Design: From Art to Practice

by Joseph W. Walton

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0314765514
• ISBN13: 9780314765512
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: West Publishing Company
• Length: 664 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

You're buying a lot of 'experience'

This is an awesome book. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and I can honestly say that this book teaches more real-life engineering than my 4 years of college. Or, rather, it supplements those four years by systematically and intentionally (see the preface) *uniting* the otherwise isolated fields of physics, mathematics, and engineering. I really wish that every university had a course for seniors using *this* book to "tie it all together". Every chapter is packed with rules of thumb, common parameter values and useful simplifications or approximations. The author writes in a VERY easy manner, almost playful at times and, best of all, anticipates questions and "common sense" that might be lacking. There are many places in the book where I had instances of nirvana - concepts that I had heard years before were matched up with those from some different field and resulted in a deeper understands. Other times, what I had *assumed* proved to be false - for instance, plating a load-baring item is a lot worse than giving it a high polish. Above all, the authors drums how statistics and testing affect each and every problem in way that college never quite 'connected'. The message is that calculations and rules of thumb only give one a starting point (the first iteration) of the testing regiment. This book is great for recent grads as well as those who are planning a career change into engineering. It really is possible to find a lot of knowledge that can only otherwise be learned through "experience" - get this book and read it! I guarantee you that you *will* learn something valuable. Do the problems, too. And be sure to look at the select answers. There is a lot more that the author offers in there! I will write another review when I finish the book. Then, a final review will follow after a few years implementing what I am learning. EVERY engineer (electrical, computer, mechanical, etc) SHOULD read this book! I sing the praises of this book to anyone who will listen (and benefit from it).