Welcome to the EGR 283 (Strength of Materials) course. The textbook for the class is Beer, Johnston, & DeWolf's Mechanics of Materials, 3^rd Edition, published by McGraw-Hill.

While important, attendance does not affect your grade directly, but missing a quiz certainly will!  Information will be distributed in class about the group project.  And, of course, there will be class discussions of the theory and the problems. Your grade will be determined by:
 

Exams	60 %
Quizzes	10 %
Projects	30 %

There is no final exam.

Quizzes may be placed on the website, they may be handed out in class for completion elsewhere, or they may be given in class.  If a quiz is placed on the website, you will have  from Friday to Monday to submit the quiz and you will have 10-15 minutes (possibly more, depending on the quiz) after opening it to submit it.  Quizzes and Exams will be open book/notes, with the proviso that you may not bring to any exam any solutions to the problems that have been printed; you may, however, bring handwritten solutions.  In order to provide two hours for exams, they will be administered during EGR201 time.  Project requirements will be discussed more thoroughly in class.  You will be expected to work on the project in groups and to contribute equally to your group.  Evaluations will be made to determine the extent of each member's contributions.  Members of a group will not necessarily receive the same grades.

Ten to fifteen problems will be assigned each week.  You will probably be unable to do most of these without help.  Therefore, a variety of problem solutions are posted on this website in three places -- the 2nd Edition problem solutions, the 3rd Edition problem solutions, and the examples in the modules.  It is possible that not all of the solutions to your assigned problems will be provided, although I will attempt to post most or all of them. You may be tempted to merely look at the problem solutions rather than attempt the solutions first.  If you do that, it will be a serious mistake; improvement at problem solution comes over time with the constant struggle of solving problems.  Perhaps more convincing is the probability that you will be unable to do the exam problems if you have not been making that regular, often frustrating, sometimes satisfying, struggle.   The assigned problems are sometimes similar to the example problems in the modules and to those assigned in previous years (see the 2nd Edition problem listing).

Class will often consist of demonstrations of solution techniques, reviewing solutions online, and discussions of theory.  If I were to try to completely solve problems in class, very little would be accomplished since they can take a considerable amount of time.  A complete presentation cannot be accomplished in 50 minutes; all I can do is illustrate the high points and indicate some pitfalls.  Your preparation for class must consist of trying the problems, practicing the example problems, and reviewing the theory.  Stay ahead of me so that you can benefit from the class! Don't wait for me to go over the material; review it yourself first so that you can ask intelligent questions!

You will be responsible for information posted on this website as well as any material covered in class.  If I post any additions or changes to these policies, I will announce them in class also and give you at least a week to adjust.  You are responsible for everything in the text other than those topics specifically excepted.