0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Very Satisfied with Order, 2008-07-08
Book was received very shortly after order. Will be very useful now that I am in class that requires book for school
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Waste of Money, 2004-10-04
This is the worst textbook I have ever used or owned. Though it is filled with examples and problems (presumably the reason my university chose it as the required text) learning any new material from its incoherent presentation of the material is impossible (presumably why my professor lectured and used examples from another text). As an example, I missed the lecture covering Nyquist plots. I sat down with the book, thinking with an hour or two I'd be able to master the material by looking through the section in the book on the subject. I ended up in office hours.
My negative opinion of the book is shared by everyone I have spoken to about it, and most students scramble to find a better text when they learn how bad this one truly is.
Pros:
Many examples and problems.
Provides instruction for using Matlab in conjunction with controls.
Cons:
Presentation of the material is terrible.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
What the??!, 2002-08-02
The experience of using this book was like giving someone $110 to give me a handful of porridge (no bowl). I found the text to be disjointed and awkward to read. I was often flipping ahead in the book to more advanced sections in order to work the problems. A found it usful to purchase other textbooks in order to actually learn the material. I found the index on many occasions to be useless. There are some main points that seem to be mentioned as after thoughts in example problems. If I were to teach a course in System Dynamics I would go shopping elsewhere for a good text. I give it 2 stars because I think the ME textbook mafia will hunt me down for trashing a book by Ogata.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Missing some info., 2001-04-09
The text itself was easy to follow, and the problems associated with each chapter are preceeded by similar examples that contain solution explainations, which helped a great deal in problem solving.
Unfortunatly, Ogata neglects the topic of non-linear dynamics and system chaos, which comprised a sizable portion of our course material. If you are looking for a sytems text that is all inclusive, a supplement to this should be chosen.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Necessary but not sufficient one, 2001-02-02
This book is very helpful for those who are doing system dynamics course. I spent more than 4 hours in my university library (KFUPM), comparing this book to other system dynamics books and I found the following result. This book contains the most solved examples than other system dynamics books I have seen. Each chapter of this book contains lots of solved problems that came in my quizzes, major, and final exams.
Unlike other system dynamics books I have seen, this book does not discuss Mason loop rule method which is easier to use instead of Block reduction rule method mentioned in this book. I, also, think that this book does not explain very well how to plot Bode Diagrams by hands.
Like other system dynamics books I have seen, this book does not provide the students with the solutions of the questions given at the end of each chapter.
Regardless of its few minuses, this book is still an excellent one and I strongly recommend it.
To overcome its minuses, buy this book as well as " Modern Control System" which is written by Richard C. Dorf & Robert H. Bishop. Modern Control System is also a wonderful book and a very interesting one. It is better than System Dynamics book in that the concepts are explained deeply. Mason loop rule, Block reduction rule, and plotting Bode Diagrams by hands are very well explained in this book. It is easy to understand and very illustrated. Compared to System Dynamics book, this book has 7 excellent appendices plus a fantastic index, which can also be used as a glossary. Additionally, and above all, the solved exampled plus the questions given at the end of each chapter deal with the modern systems, equipments, devices, and with the recent technology available today.
I passed this course depending on these two books plus my instructor's notes and got "B+". I strongly believe that the students using these two books will be in very good shapes.