[.ca] Engineering Vibrations (ISBN 013726142X)

Outstanding Text and Reference Book:
I am currently teaching the introductory course in Mechanical Vibrations at California State University, Fullerton, and chose Dr. Inman's book after evaluating several different texts. The material is well organized, there are numerous practical examples, and the book is easy to read. The book contains substantial material on nonlinear vibrations, and numerical solutions, items that are of immense practical importance. Methods of solution are covered in three different software packages, MathCAD, MATLAB and Mathematica, which, when combined with the quantity of homework problems, allows the Instructor to tailor the class to his or her own preferences. Additionally, I am also a practicing engineer, currently employed by a manufacturer of vibration exciters, and have found the material on vibration testing to be accurate and informative. This makes the book valuable as a reference, as well as a textbook.

KEEP AWAY!:
This book is terrible! It is wrought with errors and is not a wise pick for a textbook. I've checked out the 7 pages of errata that are related to this book and still find major errors that they have overlooked. This book looks like some hack of a professor threw together some half-@$$ed notes.

Great textbook:
I think that it is a great textbook, which gives students a good balance between the theory and practice, with the nice emphasis of computer capabilities in the area of vibration. I like it very much and I am sure that many students in this country would share my opinion.

Explains concepts very clearly and with lots of examples:
I am taking a graduate course in linear vibrations and I have been using this book because I find it way easier to understand than the more "advanced" one recommended on the course outline. The book explains how to use MatLab for Vibration analysis, which is a very powerful tool.