Rating: 
Summary: Cengel4 or MoranShapiro5? A matter of taste only!
Review: To all eng thermo learners: i did an intensive comparison of Cengel4 and MoranShapiro5 whenever on the john. Sonntag6 was out-of-race: book really bad (in comparison to the two in question), so let's not talk about it any further. So the remaining top-sellers, they are *the* most widely-used most popular intro texts (the very first two semesters on thermo for engineering students) available; very comprehensive (~800pages) and extremely modern in didactics, layout, and content presentation. No wonder that they are the two best-sold intro texts. Question: which is better?
Results: Both are 100% equally top choices (and 95% equal in teaching text) and in the end it s only a matter of taste and peripheral preferences. My personal peripheral preference would be the "Which one s the better deal (US $)?". Well, MoranShapiro5 is a little harder to read (it uses one colour only: pics, drawings, and images all in GREEN, aarrgh!) and not as nicely layout as Cengel4. But text is a little more detailed and the examples are much longer, and a bit harder and thus more detailed too! Number of examples seems to be higher too (!?) ("So, if you re not a dummie (=total beginner), go for S/M as text and ref!"). Furthermore, the WileyInternationalEdition comes in HARDCOVER whereas the McGraw-HillInternationEdtion comes in PAPERBACK. Both books feature a student book companion site or online learning center. The Wiley book site has the fantastic "ThermoNet"-website, and instructors will find digitized solutions to all text problems. The McGraw-Hill book site does not offer much neither to the student nor to the instructor. Textwise, Cengel *is* better. Easier to read, grasp, learn, and understand. And apply ("So, the best thermo book for dummies is Cengel!"). VERY VERY nice layout, VERY attractive and fun to work with. An enjoyable reading. A bit more fun than Moran's. But as explained, all in all the better deal would be MoranShapiro5. Moran's text is the more serious one: useful as text *and* reference. Cengel's book-for-dummies is very useful for total beginners and poor learners. Well, if you *now* begin to complain that neither Cengel's nor Moran's book pleases you, then you wont find any other good intro tome ('picture book'). These two intro tomes *are* the best, there are no better on the market. Choose one of the two, or dont buy any intro text on eng thermo! If you dont like these two books because eng thermo is too hard for you, then please have a close look at Octave Levenspiel's intro text "Understanding Engineering Thermo". This might be the best to start with then. For you.
Rating:
Summary: A College level book
Review: Warning, this book is a college level Thermodynamics book written for students who are pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. As one reviewer pointed out, this book, unfortunately, will force you to think and will not simply provide you with the formulas necessary to solve all the problems in the back. I purchased this book as a supplement to the required text for the thermo course I was taking. I found it extremely helpful in filling in the gaps left by my text with many thorough example problems. I have recommended this book to our faculty as a replacement to our current text.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good Text Book
Review: Why so many bad reviews?I found this text to be quite good, the format of the book was appropriate, with essential concepts highlighted and the explanations are fairly clear. However what really makes this book stand out is the example problems, lots of them and each one has "Assumptions" listed so you can tell the difference between a real world situation and what's assumed in the example. In general that's what makes this book so good, the authors go to the trouble of pointing out that many of the concepts presented are for idealized situations, and that the real world is different. This book is alright to use in conjunction with the Feynman lectures on physics, if you want a different explanation of thermodyanmic concepts, while still retaining some of the real world flavor this books problems have.
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