James H. Allen - Mechanics of Materials For Dummies

Mechanics of Materials For Dummies

by James H. Allen III, PE, PhD

Mechanics of Materials For Dummies

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011926319

ISBN: 978-0-470-94273-4 (pbk); 978-1-118-08899-9 (ebk); 978-1-118-08900-2 (ebk); 978-1-118-08901-9 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

James H. Allen III, PE, PhD, serves on the civil engineering faculty at the University of Evansville, where he teaches statics, mechanics of materials, structural analysis, and structural design courses. Dr. Allen received his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in structural engineering and performed his undergraduate work at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology).

Dedication

For my loving wife, Miranda.

Authors Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the many people associated with the creation of this book, including the dedicated staff at Wiley. My continued appreciation is extended to my senior project editor, Alissa Schwipps, and my copy editor, Megan Knoll, for their continued guidance in this project. Id also like to thank Tracy Boggier and the folks at Wileys Composition Services department for their help in the completion of this endeavor.

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Introduction

S tudents undertaking a mechanics of materials class often find themselves facing a common dilemma: In their basic statics and dynamics classes, they focused on dealing exclusively with a key set of assumptions namely, that objects subjected to load dont deform but mechanics of materials throws many of those assumptions out the window.

Mechanics of materials is often your first foray into the real world from the land of theory in mechanics and physics. This class is where you start to take your basic understanding of the world around you and shape your surroundings to perform specific tasks; that is, you design stuff. This point is where I tell students that with a bit of knowledge, you can become quite dangerous.

Mechanics of materials at its core is still a very theoretical class, but it quickly takes these basic theories and applies them in new and unfamiliar ways. Thats why Ive written Mechanics of Materials For Dummies: to help make your transition from theoretical to practical as smooth and simple as possible. My goal in this text is to illustrate the basic theory while showing you how to actually apply these theories to real-world applications.

About This Book

No mechanics of materials book can possibly show you how to analyze every type of problem you may come across. Most mechanics of materials textbooks focus on complex derivations and variables that result in several relatively simple formulas without providing a whole lot of explanation along the way.