Mechanics of Materials helps students gain physical and intuitive understanding of the ideas underlying the mechanics of materials; grasp big picture ideas and use the subject to solve problems—everything it takes to genuinely learn how the forces acting on a material relate to its deformation and failure.
Student-focused Organization: Drawing on over two decades of research on student learning of mechanics concepts and engineering education methods, Dr. Steif uses a thoughtfully organized book structure to break the subject apart for students and then helps them put it back together. Students can generally picture deformation better than they can picture forces (for instance, imagine seeing a ruler bend and then calculating the force)–therefore, he begins with the deformation and then covers the associated forces. He starts with a simple situation and then builds a more general mathematical representation.
Each chapter is a series of two-page spreads or sections, with each section dedicated to developing one idea or concept.
Chapter Openers present the main ideas of a chapter in diagrams and words.
Chapter Summaries draw together key concepts, terms and equations.
Chapters 2-8 are grouped into 3 units that capture the overall structure of the subject presented in Chapter 1.

Big Picture Concepts: To help students grasp the larger, coherent structure of Mechanics of Materials, the core question that it answers is addressed in Chapter 1: will a body deform too much or fail? The remaining chapters are grouped into 3 units that outline how this question is answered:
A body that deforms and may fail as composed of many small, identical pieces or elements (Chapter 2).
Three common modes of deformation: stretching, twisting and bending (Chapters 3-5).
To address deformation and failure in more general situations, the presence of these common deformation modes is recognized and their contributions appropriately combined (Chapters 6-8).
A conceptual overview at the start of each chapter features a map that locates the chapter in the overall structure of the subject.

End-of-section and Focused Application Area Problems: This book contains end-of-section problems that illustrate ideas, concepts and procedures. Focused Application area problems demonstrate applications to real situations like: bicycles, cable stayed bridges, drilling of wells, exercise equipment, bone fracture fixation and wind turbines.
Each Focused Application area problem’s diagram references a short appendix that describes the application. Students can see how the situation depicted in a single problem fits into the overall application. Refer to pages 160 and 286-288.

Familiar Context: Everyday objects can illustrate the ideas of Mechanics of Materials and help students gain an intuitive understanding of concepts. This book starts with situations that students are familiar with and progresses to the general, mathematical forms that enable wide application of the subject. Refer to pages 138, 139, 224, 252, 332 and 380.

Presentation: Steif’s knowledge of and enthusiasm for, the subject are reflected in his direct, friendly style of writing. Words, diagrams and equations are used in balance to present concepts in a clear, thorough way that resonates with students. Refer to pages 139, 151, 191 and 253.

Visualization: Artwork, including appropriate vectors and notation illustrating a concept, is used throughout the book to explain how the principles of mechanics apply to real-world situations. These figures provide a strong connection to the 3-D nature of engineering. The view of the object, its dimensions and the vectors are presented in a manner that can be easily understood. Refer to the Visual Table of Contents as well as pages 139, 148, 149 and 367.
1. Introduction
2 Internal Force, Stress and Strain
3 Axial Loading
4 Torsion
5 Bending
6 Combined Loads
7 Stress Transformations and Failure
8 Buckling

About the Author

Professor Paul S. Steif has been a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University since 1983. He received a Sc.B. degree in engineering mechanics from Brown University; M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied mechanics from Harvard University and was National Science Foundation NATO Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge. As a faculty member his research has addressed a variety of problems, including the effects of interfacial properties on fiberreinforced composites, bifurcation and instabilities in highly deformed layered materials and stress generation and fracture induced by cryopreservation of biological tissues. Dr. Steif has also contributed to engineering practice through consulting and research on industrial projects, including elastomeric damping devices, blistering of face seals and fatigue of tube fittings.

Since the mid-1990s, Dr. Steif has focused increasingly on engineering education, performing research on student learning of mechanics concepts and developing new course materials and classroom approaches. Drawing upon methods of cognitive and learning sciences, Dr. Steif has led the development and psychometric validation of the Statics Concept Inventory—a test of statics conceptual knowledge. He is the co-author of Open Learning Initiative (OLI) Engineering Statics. Dr. Steif is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and recipient of the Archie Higdon Distinguished Educator