Structures: Or Why Things Dont Fall Down

Rating:
Summary: nice to read but lacks rigour ...
Review: The book is indeed good for the layman (I would even say very good), but it lacks rigour and this makes it less usable for professional purposes...
The author wants to avoid as much math as possible but as a consequence, some explanations contain gaps.
This book can be seen as an extra to more professional books, everybody will definitely learn something from it and it reads very well...But if you want to have a rigorous understanding of structures, you should buy another book ...

Rating:
Summary: Clear, Concise, It makes the Complex easily Understood
Review: This book could even give Stress Analysis a good name. The author does an exceedingly good job of explaining the property or behavior of a material. He then proceeds to demonstrate the direct relationship between the properties and how the material is utilized and how it affects of the overall design of the structure. The book discusses why construction steel really is the preferred material for most large structures. Comparisons of soft metal chain vs. high tensile strength suspension bridges or bi-plane vs. monoplane design are discussed. I would recommend this for anybody that wants a well rounded basic understanding of why structures are the designed the way they are. The math is at a minimum, the concepts are very well explained and real world examples are used frequently to keep it interesting. The author's career has exposed him to a multitude of design failures and successes. He readily explains them along with his philosophy of design and accident prevention. This is another one of those books that can in a few chapters explain the major goals and problems in the modern field of design and materials science.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is the only structures book that I have ever read that is fun to read! It makes use of real life exemples insted of mathematical equations. It is a common sense approach to structures.

Rating:
Summary: Thinking about becoming an Engineer? Read on
Review: While deciding on my major in college I read this book. It provides a good overview of Structures in terms anyone can understand. In fact, its interesting enough (most of the time) to read even if you're not interested in engineering but want to learn, well, why things don't fall down.

Rating:
Summary: Thinking about becoming an Engineer? Read on
Review: While deciding on my major in college I read this book. It provides a good overview of Structures in terms anyone can understand. In fact, its interesting enough (most of the time) to read even if you're not interested in engineering but want to learn, well, why things don't fall down.