<p>hi! i'm taking statics next semester which is the first mechanical engineering course. i need to buy a book called engineering mechanics:statics (fifth edition by bedford and fowler). but the 4th edition of the same book that contains both statics and dynamics is a lot cheaper. all i'll be needing is the statics portion, but my question is how much will the two books differ in content?
thanks!</p>
<p>It could be very similar, or it could be very different. While the overall content likely won’t be different, the page numbers and the problems likely will vary somewhat. Depending on how much the professor uses the textbook, it might be worth it just to get the 5th edition.</p>
<p>I’d get the 5th. The prof could end up assigning problems from the text, and in that case you’d be screwed with the 4th.</p>
<p>first check if your library has in-library use copies, if they do …buy the previous edition and go to library when you need to and get the problems.</p>
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<p>This is a really good idea.</p>
<p>I used in-library copies of books for problems all the time. I would usually buy a cheaper previous version for future reference, but for an easy course like statics, that’s probably not necessary.</p>
<p>Since the text will most likley be exactly the same, Id get the 4th edition and just copy the hw from another student,</p>
<p>ok thanks for the input everyone</p>