Engineering Dynamics: A Primer

This Primer is intended to provide the theoretical background for the standard undergraduate, mechanical engineering course in dynamics. The book contains several worked examples and summaries and exercises at the end of each chapter to aid readers in their understanding of the material. Teachers who wish to have a source of more detailed theory for the course, as well as graduate students who need a refresher course on undergraduate dynamics when preparing for certain first year graduate school examinations, and students taking the course will find the work very helpful.

Oliver M. O'Reilly is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at this institution since 1992 and received multiple teaching awards including the Distinguished Teaching Award of the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of two other textbooks and coauthor of a research monograph on discrete elastic rods. The author's research interest lie in a variety of topics including the dynamics of soft robots, rotations of rigid bodies, mathematical models for the mechanics of plant growth, the dynamics of toys, and the failure of shoelace knots.