materials

As a lecturer and graduate student in water resource engineering, I have read numberous textbooks covering the topic of fluid mechanics. I have reviewed textbooks written by aeronautical and mechanical engineers, and find that the civil engineers, particularly Dr.'s Finnemore and Franzini, have done an exemplary job in writing a book that is clear and logical, yet spares no detail, in presenting the fundamentals of fluids to undergraduates and graduates alike. The book begins with definitions, viscocity, and hydrostatics, then moves along to open-channel hydraulics and waterhammer.

The authors discuss the details in terms of concepts, testing, and mathematical computations while using a minimum of complicated vector integrals. They continue to present "the big picture" of hydraulics even while explaining fluid theory - a student and lecturer could not ask for more. Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I laud this textbook and recommend it to any practicing civil or agricultural engineer, or to any student of engineering.

I cannot help but feel like I would like to toss my cookies when I recall this work. Certainly, the author made a futile attempt to provide an apelike overview of fluid mechanics, as it was at the time- but did he really scrutinise those engineering applications? Really and truly? As a reader, I must judge for myself-does this textbook actually present a serious attempt to disseminate the theories and methodologies of fluid mechanics, or is it just a convenient outlet for the author to convey to his readers his most bizarre and disturbing fascination with pipes, heads, and viscous fluids? Personally, I wonder....