Product Description: This book presents a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of classical thermodynamics. Noted for its treatment of the second law, it clearly presents both theory and application. Environmental topics and applications have been expanded and updated.
Fair/Poor As many other reviewers have noted, this book often trouble for the ME undergrad. Unfortunately, myself and my classmates are trying to teach ourselves the material due to the lack of a decent professor. This book alone will probably be more of a frustration than a source of understanding. With over 800 pages, its way too much to cover in one semester of an undergrad thermo course. Our entire class is floundering, and our professor has had to curve grades heavily to keep the majority of us from failing. So, this might not be the best book for undergraduate students who are trying to actually learn the material. You will spend most of your time guessing what to do, unless you have a good professor.
Solid foundation in thermodynamics A good text for undergrad study of thermodynamics. Alot of tables for common binary fluids. Clear and easy to understand. Emphasizes cycle analysis.
Thoughts from an ME Undergraduate I'm currently using this book for my undergraduate thermo course and this is my first class (and first book) on thermodynamics. That said, I must I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I'll agree that there's plenty of examples which are helpful and there's plenty of rigor in explaining many concepts.
On the other hand, I will also say that I was completely lost several times when reading the book. I definitely agree with the other review that complained about this book's wordiness. In an introductory text such as this, I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't string together long, run-on sentences with nothing but definition terms (where you have to lookup virtually each word in the sentence from other chapters). I've also noticed that many intro texts *fail to succinctly and clearly explain completely new terms and concepts in easy-to-understand words and real-world examples*, and this is no exception!
Central summary pages including main formulas (and page numbers for alternative forms of the main formulas) would be helpful for students instead of constantly flipping through the chapters looking for something specific formula.
Also, the back of the book solutions severely lack any sort of real form (most books give either all odd or even solutions) and the problems themselves often require complex assumptions that first-year thermo students such as myself aren't going to think of right off-the-bat. Starting point hints would be a BIG help.
All that said, I'd say that while this is a pretty good, detailed book, good luck if you're an engineering undergrad taking a thermo class for the first time with this book. You'll probably benefit from lectures more than from this book.
I had to teach myself from this... Great book, my professor for this class lacked a Ph.D and the ability to teach, so I was on my own for the most part. I nearly pulled an A in the course. On a technical note, they aren't so clear on/or make a few minor errors, be careful with the P-h diagrams.
Extremely well organized This text is just so clear, well written, and organized that words are hard to find. Work patiently through the first six chapters, and the rest is a true pleasure. The perfect structure of the examples and of the text itself provides the perfect tool both for learning thermodynamics and for getting B's and A's. All engineering textbook writers should take notice of this book. (By the way, Cengel, although decent, is an average text compared to this one.)
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
