In addition, there is a separate Errata file for each printing of the book which contains old Errata posted on March 9, 2002, appropriate to that specific printing. It is not necessary to download these Errata for more than one printing. Within each file, Errata are grouped by the date of entry into the file for the convenience of readers who have already entered some Errata, but wish to update with only the most recent additions.
Most of the Errata are simply typographical mistakes, some trivial, some not so trivial, but all innocent errors. However, one serious technical error on the part of the author turned up on pages 518-519 of the First and Second Printings concerning the modeling of the folded spring. Figure 19.22 and the text at the top of page 519 have been changed in the Third Printing to correct this error. These changes are also included in the Errata sheets for the First and Second Printings. In addition, a serious error was found in Equation 10.39 on page 246 that affects all printings through the Sixth Printing. It impacts the discussion of the accuracy of trial solutions. (This error was due to a programming typo in the Maple code used to generate the solution, and it demonstrates that using software to solve math problems is no guarantee of accuracy.)
A personal note from the author: Many of you, especially the students among you, might gnash your teeth at the large number of errors that have turned up in this book, and you might reasonably ask how anyone could dare publish a book with so many mistakes. As the author of both the book and all the mistakes, let me say that I took a calculated risk in the interest of getting this book out, namely, I wrote the whole thing in 13 months, from a blank page to camera-ready copy. That was the full extent of the leave of absence from MIT in which I could do the writing. The book manuscript never had the benefit of approximately 2,000 students going over it with a fine-toothed comb to find both typographical and more serious errors, at least not until it was in print. Now that this intensive review has occurred, I am hopeful that most of the errors have been found and are correctly revised. The Seventh Printing and beyond will incorporate all of the corrections I was able to make without disrupting the pagination of the book. Should any more mistakes turn up, I will post them here. Please understand, it is never pleasant when an author has to reveal to the world how many mistakes he has made. I want to thank the many students who have sent me e-mails with their corrections, and among these, I especially want to thank Luis Velasquez, who has the distinction of being the master mistake-finder for this particular book. His careful examination of the text, both as a student in the class and later as teaching assistant, was mercilessly accurate and of great value to all of us.
| Errata File (pdf format) | Last Updated |
| New-errata-Dec-2003.pdf> | December 18, 2003 |
| First-printing-errata.pdf | March 9, 2002 |
| Second-printing-errata.pdf | March 9, 2002 |
| Third-printing-errata.pdf | March 9, 2002 |
| Fourth-printing-errata.pdf | March 9, 2002 |
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