materials

Hibbeler's book was the prescribed text for the Statics class at Washington State University in the Spring of 2003. The book like all introductory books employs a simple approach to statics. There is some handwaving (especially when doing the Calc based Math) which actaully aids understanding. The problems illustrations (diagrams) are isometric pictorial and helps in the visualization. The chaper which I found lacking was the one on Dry Friction -- too little explanation and the solved examples were unrepresentative. The problems lacked the intuitive feel that one requires when solving the "impending motion" type friction problems.
All in all not such a bad book to start off Statics with. I plan to use the better Beer and Johnston treatment on Statics to further my understanding.

If you are buying this for an Engineering Statics class, I would suggest trying to locate the 9th edition, 1st printing. Although the text portion is identical, the problem sections in the 2nd printing often refer to illustrations that are nonexistant or incorrect. In addition, the many answers have no correlation to the referenced problem at all. Our instructor assigns many problems as homework, and this has caused major headaches for a majority of the class. I have compared the two printings, and the 1st printing does not contain these errors. Otherwise, the book does a very good job in explaining the various concepts. NOTE: The people at Prentice Hall are unsure if new replacements will be available until after this semester (Spring 2003). DO NOT BUY THE 2ND PRINTING IF YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO WORK THE PROBLEMS.

This book is good for the begining Engineering student. It contains good diagrams with clear and concise text. It should be easy to follow for anyone with a basic background in physics. My only complaint is that while it has a great selection of questions (with answers to odd problems in back), it lacked good example problems. I am the type of person who learns primarily from studying examples of solved problems and was disappointed with this deficiency. Still, with the compainon volume on Dynamics it can certainly be used as an effective primary text for first year engineering students.