FE/EIT Discipline Review

Introduction. This book is a study guide for college seniors preparing to sit for the first of two qualifying exams prior to becoming a registered professional engineer. The term FE/EIT is never explained. One infers (Potter, 1998b, p. 4) that FE stands for Fundamentals of Engineering. One is never told that EIT means Engineer-in-Training.

Any person facing a professional proficiency examination would want a guide on the subject to fulfill three objectives: First, the book should cover the panoply of problem types likely to be encountered on the test. Second, all problems presented should be solved, in the book, with all necessary steps revealed. Third the algebra and arithmetic--plus the rote copying from other handbooks of various constants and their units--must be correct. In this critique, the booklet, FE/EIT Discipline Review, edited by Dr. Merle Potter, will be judged primarily and most harshly against those 3 criteria.

Any book must also be judged on the degree to which: It is well-written; it stands alone; and its index is comprehensive in proportion to the book's utility as a continuing reference work. Those secondary criteria will not be ignored.

Introductory Chapters. The Preface reveals at the outset that the book is not a stand-alone, comprehensive treatment of the subject(s). Indeed it depends crucially on another book--the NCEES (not defined) handbook, which the editor's publi

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, p. 127) includes a mistyped problem, which one must deduce from the answer given (Potter, 1998b, p. 137). The function, at p. 127, should include the term, -4x2, and not -4x. Book 2: Mechanical Engineering. Six chapters, produced by 4 separate authors (Potter, 1998b, pp. 139-214) cover thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluids, vibrations, machine design, and control systems. The M.E. Practice Test follows (Potter, 1998b, pp. 215-240). In Example 1.4 (Potter, 1998c, pp. 148-50), Problem 1 (p. 148) seeks the mass of air in each cylinder of an engine operating in an "Otto cycle." The solution (p. 149) is based on: m = PV/RT. P, V, and T are given at p. 148. The value of R, however, is given in Appendix A (Potter, 1998b, p. 350) as 8.314 kJ/kmol-K [which is correct], divided by the molecular weight (M.W.) of the material involved. So, one needs the M.W. of air (here at 20(C) to plug-in. The solution (p. 149) uses, without source or explanation, 29 for that value. No units given. This must be something that mechanical engineers just know. Perhaps a rusty, nervous M.E. student cramming for this test might look up the density of air at 0(C [1.29 g/L (Lewis, 1993, p. 28)], and--knowing that one mole of any gas occupies 22.41
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