History of Strength of Materials (Dover Civil and Mechanical Engineering)

by Stephen P. Timoshenko

Book Overview

Strength of materials is that branch of engineering concerned with the deformation and disruption of solids when forces other than changes in position or equilibrium are acting upon them. The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486611876
• Release Date: February 1983
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

History written by the master

Stephen P. Timoshenko wrote the seminal strength of materials textbooks used in 1920 through the 1980's and probably well beyond. For the most part, these books used the classic approach (as opposed to ones using matrix algebra) and were used in most higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses in the strength of materials. It is thus quite fitting that this master of the subject should also write a comprehensive history of the subject. This history starts with Galileo and then goes on to the work of Bernoulli, Euler, Legrange, Coulomb, Navier, Poncelet, and Young (all in the first 100 pages). He then moves on to the mid 19th century with the work of such giants as Cauchy, Poisson, Lame, Clapeyron, Saint-Venant and Maxwell. The book covers everything up to 1950's. The theory of elasticity is discussed as are the evolution of railway engineering and structures in general. This is not a book for those just interested in history as it contains a lot of mathematics and theoretical development. It is a good book for those with the right background (civil, mechanical and structural engineers and physicists interested in mechanics), who want to know the history of the strength of materials.

A very good aquisition in solid mechanics and elasticity theory

This book contains a very good review of the strength of materials from Da Vinci work, to the half of the XX century. There are several good stories, including the creation of the Mohr circle, the discovery of mechanical properties of materials, elastic line, energy theorems, the problem of the bending of beans, warping, truss bridges, and so on. The book is highly recommended for who already knows the theory of structures and elasticity, and wants to know how was the whole development of this amazing subject.

Most Valuable Math Book on the Historic Mechanical Examples of the Strength of Materials.

If you are not interested in civil engineering than you would probably be disappointed with this great math history book.It covers all the great mechanical master-builders and mathematical thinkers over the last five hundred years.It spans the whole length of their contributions to the field of engineering concerning the strength,deformations,and disruptions of solid materials pertaining to architectural structures and industrial features.This book is invaluable to anyone interested in the basis of today's theorical equations,accomplishments of the respected mathematicians and their accepted applied scientific practises.

Necessary to the students who are studyng Civil Eng.

This is a very good book. if you are a first or second year student studying any engineering(especialy Mechanics and Civil Eng.), You'd better it now. It helps you to understand the foundation theorem of mechanics especialy in elasticity. It's very helpful if you read it with Timoshenko and Gere's "Mechanics of materials"

An excellent book for the library

This book is an excellent addition to the library. It's fascinating to read about all those great pioneers in mechanics, like Galileo,Prandtl,(he was also a great scientist in hydrodynamics and boundary layer theory) Boussinesq, Foppl and others. It's also interesting to know where the various assumptions we use today come from. (Transverse Shear deformation effects etc.,). The origin of beautiful concepts like Castigliano's theorem, minimum complementary energy theorem, betti maxwell reciprocity theorem etc are also given. Will make a very good reading for a weekend, if you are interested in mechanics of materials.