Introduction to Statics and Dynamics
by Rudra Pratap and Andy Ruina
Copyright 1994-2008 by Andy Ruina, Rudra Pratap and Oxford University Press
All rights reserved.
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The story. We wrote a book because we didn't like the available texts. We talked to about 10 textbook authors before we started writing. They all advised against it: more work than you would think, slight if negative academic rewards, and little chance of financial gain. Now we know. But it hasn't been all bad. We started in 1992 and have re-organized the book 4 or 5 times since. We have enjoyed 12 international trips to work together in Ithaca, the Baltic Sea, and Bangalore. We were just writing a dynamics text, but then we added statics because many of the student dynamics difficulties had their roots there.The book was contracted by Saunders Publishing but then sold, with the whole Saunders College Division, to Oxford University Press where our friendly editor is Danielle Christianson. Various pre-release versions of this book have been used at Cornell about 11 times and also at a few other schools. We have had about 20 external reviews. Some people have read the book nearly straight through and found it educational, despite the defects which have annoyed some others. If we are lucky we will continue to improve the book as more people find it useful.
Spring 2008 version (use latest version posted):
1/23/08 Chapters 1-9
3/4/08 Chapter 10
3/27/08 Chapters 11-12
4/8/08 Chapter 13
4/26/08 Chapters 1-14 w/ index and some answers only minor edits to 1-13 (42 megabytes)
4/26/08 just Chapter 14 w/index and some answers (4 megabytes)
Spring 2007 version):
1/23/07: Chapters1-9 (formatting improved, includes problems)
2/15/07: Updated chapter 9 problems (some corrections, new collision problems)
2/18/07: Chapter 10
3/8/07 : Chapter 11
3/13/07: Chapter 12
4/5/07: Chapter 13
4/22/07: Chapter 14Substantial Errors:
pg 386 of 1/23 ed: 1 N actually = 1 kg m/s^2 , NOT 1 kg/(m s^2). CILE (Corrected In Later Editions)Prob 4.69. Should give answers in terms of M, R, theta and g.
2002 version: (Some bound copies of the 2002 version are available from Andy Ruina.)
Ruina/Pratap "whole book" with no problems (11 meg pdf, January 2002 version)
Ruina/Pratap, problems only (6.4 meg pdf)
Center of mass (The "whole book" above is missing this section.)
D'Alambert beware (The "whole book" above is missing this section.)