Fundamentals of Engineering Thermodynamics,   ISBN:9780471787358

Customer Rating: 

This is a great (and iconic) book on Thermodynamics. As a student in Mechanical Engineering, I am sure that what I have learned from my Thermodynamics class (and this book, by extension) will be useful. Now, to get into the book:

1. The concepts and theory in this book are expressed in simple language that doesn't require a masters degree to understand.

2. There are many examples and are clearly solved without skipping steps, in both metric and English units. I'm not a huge fan of using English units, but this book goes through the conversion factors (the hardest part) quite clearly and keeps units on all values to make following the examples relatively pain-free.

3. There are a variety of homework problems (usually over 125 per chapter) in both metric and English units. Usually the problems come in pairs; the first problem of a pair will have metric units while the second problem uses English units. As in most texts, the problems get progressively harder, but there are so many problems, that the transition is slow. If you can't figure out, say, problem 8.91, try a problem before it. Usually this will lead you to the correct method of solving 8.91.

4. The only major flaw (and to me, it's a pretty big one), is the lack of answers in the back of the book. There are none in the back of the book, however there are *some* on the book's webpage. Unfortunately, there are only a small fraction of the answers located on the official webpage. TIP: If you look very hard on the internet, there are methods to find worked out solutions.

5. Just before each set of problems at the end of the chapter, there are tables of equations, with explanations of the situations in which to use them. This is really useful when doing the homework or studying.

6. At the end of the book, there are many, many, many tables with thermodynamic data for liquids and gasses, in both English and metric units. There are indexed at the beginning of each appendix which makes it really easy to find the table you're looking for.

I hope this helps.

Customer Rating: 

This is a good undergraduate level book for mechanical engineers (I feel chemical engineers will find this book useless).

I had really good professors for thermodynamics so I might not be the best person to review the book since I understood all what we needed to know. the basic stuff is explained well (1st and 2nd laws, P-v/T-s diagrams, otto/diesel, brayton, rankin, combined cycles, what individual components do, exergy) however, I found some of the topics that a lot of undergraduate classes don't really cover aren't presented in great detail. mostly things dealing with mass transfer (cooling towers, combustion, psychro) I didn't really understand what the hell was going on until i took a mass transfer class.

but i like it. this one time I went to las vegas to marry this book but they said I can't because the book didn't have an ID.

Customer Rating: 

Firstly, I'll agree with other reviewers that the book has a very clear style and is very helpful learning how to do thermo calculations.
Most chapters have a few section on concepts and the rest of the chapter is examples. The examples are very clear and after reading through them I was able to do our assigned problems without any problems.

My major issue is with the book's lack of conceptual explanation. It explains concepts in a formulaic fashion. I.e. it gives a formula and explains how to use it and supplies just enough concepts to be able to use the formulas. Take for example chapter 3 where it introduces the first major/complicated concept of the relations between specific volume, T and pressure. All it does is give the graph and than analyzes the graph. Sure it explains very well the relations and how to use them, but there is almost no explanation given as to why they are the way they are.

I'll say again, if you want to be able to do the thermo analyzation and calculation this is a really great book. But, if you want understand why things are the way they are, you'll have to find another more theoretical book.

Customer Rating: 

Out of all the physics and engineering books I have had to read during the past four years, this is by far the best when it comes to breaking down what can end up being difficult concepts to wrap your head around. The book not only breaks each method and theory down into words, they also highlight necessary formulas at the end of the chapter and have extensive examples that they guide you through at different points during each chapter.

Customer Rating: 

This was exactly the book I ordered and it came in a very promptly manner. Unfortunately when it said brand new it did not say 'does not contain CD' this is something they should have mentioned in the descriptions. Other than that the book was completely new and I am happy with the sale it was still 140 dollars cheaper than using the school bookstore.