Open Channel Hydraulics

Rating:
Summary: very helpful
Review: In a world where engineering texts burn one's eyes like a Saharan sandstorm, Sturm's Open Channel Hydraulics provides rivers of soothing relief. Concise, to the point, and utterly compelling, it stands as a towering example of an engineer in full command of his prodigous talent. Read it and be powerfully enlightened.

Rating:
Summary: Diagrams Please!
Review: The text was ok except for the fact that the chapter problems did not include any illustrations. A lot of time the students had to guess at exactly what Sturm meant. Towards the end of the course it became routine for us to work the problem first and then check in the teacher's key to make sure that we set it up the way Sturm meant for us to. The class was made of seniors and graduate students.

Another problem is that often the student had to infer how Sturm wanted the reader to use the numerous charts based on empirical data. Sturm wasn't always explicit and that caused problems in getting correct values off them.

To be fair, this is a first edition and there are bound to be errors. Hopefully, the next edition is better. My professor loved this book stating that "Sturm gets to the point." He used Chow and Henderson's texts to supplement this book which helped a lot. There were computer programs and examples of their use in the book which I enjoyed and will prove useful to me in the future.

Rating:
Summary: Dam Good
Review: This is a dam good book. For those aficionados of hydraulics (such as myself), this book is liberating. Masterful work!