β Scribed by J.G. Simmonds
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
This is a profound book which summarizes a professional lifetime of study devoted to the development and widespread application of a number of innovative and powerful techniques to a host of theoretical and practical problems in linear and nonlinear shell theory. Because, as the author states in his preface, "Studies in this held have long been inhibited by the undue conventionality, obscurity and general stodginess of the available works of reference", his first task -which he carries out in a long, &part appendix and in his first chapter-is to develop '*... an intrinsic geometrical and coordinate-free method... whose geometrical meaning is much more comprehensible... [and which] appears to be indispensable...".
for myself here-that it takes work to read this book. While the English is generally excellent, the notation is very much in the (modern) French mathematical tradition. Thus, do not look for the array of dots, times signs, dels, and the other boldfaced symbols that one finds in traditional mechanics texts, but try to remember that no language, mathematical or natural, has a monopoly on concision, elegance, and clarity. A little effort at translation will reap great rewards for this is a book whose riches will beckon the reader back again and again.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Book reviews 77 understanding. Mathematical equations are used where appropriate to emphasise design features, but the vast majority of the last Γve chapters is considered in a nonmathematical fashion. Many real examples are given both as general illustrations and as an information package and these