ANNOUNCEMENTSANDREVIEWS 563

An Appendix is included on “IRE standards on piezoelectric crystals: measurements of

piezoelectric ceramics, 1960”. This represents no contribution from the authors of the book;
it is simply a reprint of the well-known IRE standard. Nevertheless, it does seem right to have
included it. Aside from anything else, it serves as a glossary and list of symbols.
On the whole, the book is well-produced, and the material clearly presented. The printing
and paper are good. But careless editing is shown up by the many niggling mistakes. The
Subject Index is also inadequate and the list of symbols incomplete. The symbols list in the
Appendix is apparently intended to refer to the whole book, but it omits many symbols used
in the text. However, these minor criticisms apart, there is no doubt that this book is a valuable
contribution to the literature and will be very welcome to all those working in the area of
piezoelectric ceramic technology.
E. A. NEPPIRAS

AN INTRODUCTION TO TENSOR CALCULUS 1971, J. L. Mercier. Groningen: Wolters-Noordhoff

Publishing.
This book aims at providing an introductory text to tensor calculus for students and engineers.
The only pre-requisite is a working knowledge of elementary calculus.
The text is divided into two parts. The first begins by introducing the concepts of spaces,
coordinate systems, transformations and indicial notation. This is followed by a generaliza-
tion of vectors, which leads to the formulation of Riemannian tensors and their manipulation.
Throughout, the emphasis is on an invariant formulation, so that equations relating com-
binations of tensor components have the same literal form in any coordinate system. The
main feature of the book is that every statement is accompanied by a physical example.
The second part introduces the concept of covariant differentiation. This is used to derive
many of the well-known equations and theorems in classical and continuum mechanics and
also the geometrical relations required for the study of thin shells.
Examples using Cartesian and cylindrical coordinates help to clarify the test. In addition,
problems are set at every stage, many of which are concerned with spherical coordinates.
The answers to these are given in an Appendix. Also, a summary of definitions and equations
is presented at the end for reference purposes.
Modern research and development in Engineering Science is making a greater use of
tensor notation than ever before. The author is to be congratulated on providing a text which
can be readily understood and used by engineers.
M. PETYT