Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics

Rating:
Summary: Its worth the time to figure out.
Review: I'm a mechanical engineering student at the Ohio State University. Moran is my teacher and this is the book we use. I will say that the material is definetly difficult. I will also say the Dr. Moran demands a lot from his students. For class we meet twice a week for 1.5 hours. Each class we have 3 problems due. It takes me at the very least 3 hours to complete these problems, often 4 or 5. I know that when its all said and done I'll be able to understand any thermo book that I might pick up. I'll also be able to fully evaluate most thermo problems I may encouter in my career. I do wish the book came with hints and number answers to all problems.

Rating:
Summary: Read Reviews Carefully
Review: Ignore the rating! I would love to give a review but... I need the book for class. Ordered and paid for it from SuperBookDeals over a month ago. So now, it is almost mid-term and I am still waiting for the book.

Rating:
Summary: The Book Never got Here!
Review: Ignore the rating! I would love to give a review but... I need the book for class. Ordered and paid for it from SuperBookDeals over a month ago. So now, it is almost mid-term and I am still waiting for the book.

Rating:
Summary: It's BAD REALLY BAD!
Review: IT'S THE WORST BOOK THAT YOU CAN BUY FOR YOURSELF... THEENGLISH WAS EVEN HARD TO UNDERSTAND IN THIS BOOK. NOTHING MADE SENSE

Rating:
Summary: utter garbage
Review: It's true what they say, John Wiley & Sons will publish any piece of trash submitted to them. This book is a prime example. Essentially you get a kick in the teeth and than they ask you to do completely incoherent problems. Material is difficult to follow. The problems often seem like they have nothing to do with the text. In the end, I was reduced to one of those students who memorize formulas, and do everything exactly by the book. But since most problem have no examples to guide the student, I was forced to waste hours and think them through, but half of it was guesswork and that's no way to learn. Needless to say, a simple general physics book will teach you more thermodynamics if it's written well.

Rating:
Summary: Too many words, but lots of examples
Review: This book crossed my path three times. First was my undergrad thermo course, as a prescribed text. I thought it was a little wordy but the verbosity did not contribute to my understanding. The more they tried to explain the concepts (e.g., on Kelvin's and Clausius' statements), the more confusing they became. Needless to say, I didn't do too well. That, however, is another story.

The second time was in my masters studies, and I was the TA for an undergrad thermo course (go figure). I used this book for used examples and exercises for my students. But it still didn't change my opinion on it. Locating anything on thie text would take forever because one would have to peel through layers of words.

The third time, and also the last (hopefully) is in my Ph.D. programme. I was flipping through the pages on the advanced topics (Maxwell's relations, Clapeyron's equation, etc.,etc.). Their treatment were simply too trivial, and, with the lack of depth, I promptly put it back to the shelf.

Moran and Shapiro are, no doubt, authorities on thermodynamics, and I respect them very much, as experts in their area. In their writing, it is quite clear that, they assume understanding can be achieved by loading concepts with words, the more the merrier. In my opinion, if is more effective to go through the major concepts succinctly and formally, and go through their implications in more detail. I think, this book fails utterly it this respect.

On the merit of its extensive collection of examples and exercises, I only recommend this book as supplemental. As anything beyond that, however, the shear amount of diction alone will spell frustration for the novice, and redundance for the adept.

Finally, I think Cengel, and Holman do a much better job presenting the concepts at a beginner's level. For the advanced topics (sans stat. mech. and quantum), I would opt for Callen, and Hatsopoulos and Keenan, with the latter as a reference. Finally, for statistical and quantum mechanics, I would recommend Carter for a starter, and Atkins (Physical Chemistry) will do very well to fill the holes in Carter's book.

Rating:
Summary: help!!!
Review: This book is terrible. I was almost ready to throw it out of my dorm window on several occasions. First off, if you are new to thermodynamics, you will learn practically nothing. Concepts are sort of sprinkled all over the pages, with no coherent development and explanations. The problems are even worse. Most of them have no analogous example, some involve concepts not even presented in the book...assuming they are common knowledge, when in fact that could be the crucial step in solving a problem. In short, you will be lead through a maze and given false directions at every point. As if the authors present student with a challenge and see how well he/she can navigate this mess. Avoid this book at any cost. I haven't seen other ones on the subject, but I know this one is terrible. I'd give it -5 stars if I could.

Rating:
Summary: Very difficult to learn from
Review: This book was extremely difficult to follow. It fails to teach you the material necessary to solve the problems. The problems fail to develop at a reasonable pace and become fair too difficult much too quickly. The examples don't show enough variety to be of use in solving problems

Rating:
Summary: Poor
Review: This could be one of the worst text books I've ever had to spend an entire semester with. The chapter reading had little bearing on the problems and the formulas presented were often not enough information to solve them. I don't like complaining about books, but, I spent the vast majority of my time unsuccesfully attempting to solve problems that were not at all like the examples. It is important to learn by doing problems on your own, not copying examples, but this is ridiculous.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a great textbook for anyone who wishes to learn about thermodynamics. The examples are clear and complete and will help to solve the end of chapter problems. This book makes going to lectures completely useless if your lecturer follows the book closely since the explanations are always very clear.