ISBN0131481908

Book is worth the price. However, there in NO CD ROM included with the book, and the directions given at the front of the book regarding where to download the software is incorrect. Neither the author's nor the publisher's websites offer the software for anyone except professors adopting the book.

I am tempted to return the book just for that shabby attention to details.

This book is great, it includes lots of information, many examples and real case studies that show you how these concepts can be applied. There is a ton of information in this book and defiantly a great source to have for reference. I did get a CD in mine, and seems to work just fine.

As for the downsides, many examples are repeated. vice grips, certain setups of shafts, etc. This is annoying because it doesn't express diversity.

also there are a lot of vague questions, with not very well stated parameters. If the professor understands and embraces this then it is good because it allows you to do some real design engineering where you have to make assumptions. again the prof has to understand this as your answers may vary due to assumptions. I had to learn to annotate my answers to describe every step and assumption.

overall it is a good book, but seems to lack explanation in a couple areas, but much better than the last book i used, Theory of Machines and Mechanisms by John Joseph Uicker. that book is no good!

This is a good book, but an incorporated CD for the book, and a more in-depth explanation in certain areas would make the book even better.

The book has a lot of information but lacks many explanations. The book includes numerous machine design examples, "many are repeated or the author reused them for other examples" and key machine design information which displays various concepts and applications.

But overall, it is a good Mechanical engineering machine design reference book.

Good book with plenty of direct explanations and equations. I use it for sr level engineering so it does the job

This book is very poorly written. Robert Norton wrote several text books on machine design, and one of the things I've noticed is he doesnt include everything from one book in another which confuses me. It especially confuses me when working on homework problems from this book and the only way to get the accurate solution is to use equations and theories used in his OTHER book. Additionally, like in other reviews, there are several assumption that need to be made in order to solve questions. Most of these assumptions are not common sense, especially not for students who do not know the material yet.

Also, he derives several equations in his example solutions in the book and does not state where he got the derivations from so you get very confused as to where he is getting his equations from. Does not do a good job of explaining his thought process as he explains examples. If you have not worked on problems from the beginning you will not be able to solve the problems later in the book.

For those missing the CD, do not worry. All that is really on it are MathCAD solution files from the examples performed in the chapters. If you just read the book you see the same thing except not written using MathCAD.

I have used this book for four years (only because I have to at my school) and covered it from cover to cover several times and every time I do I find more errors. Not a very good book at all.