ISBN0072424435

Well written classic supersonic theory, but "flavor" of numerical methods is given only : I think a college textbook of that price should give more than just flavor. Classic supersonic theory is not complete and needs to be integrated with other prior classic books (i.e. Ferri, Aerodynamics of supersonic flows). Overally, a little disappointing about the quantity of information given.

This book was an indispensible study tool for my PhD qualifying exam in high temp gas dynamics. Before reading this book I had never had a formal compressible flow class and I think that it covers the fundamental concepts of frozen compressible flow very well. If you don't have an excellent understanding of normal and oblique shocks, expansion fans, nozzle flow, blunt body flow and shock tubes after reading this book, you haven't been paying attention!

I picked up this book for entertainment reading on my recent trip to barbados. The title of the book is indeed intriguing and understandably led me to believe the book would be a real page turner, I was dissapointed. Character development was slow and the main character Mr. Oblique Shock was totally unbelievable. In short the book left me wanting a more reasoned plot line, especially with regards to the theta beta mach rendering. Perhaps worth it if you can find it at a yard sale, the comic version preferably.

John Anderson has a very informal and entertaining style in his textbooks, and to me, its a great change of pace from most fluids texts. Compressible flow provides a great foundation for this (despite the very funny review below this one) surprisingly entertaining book.

Anderson introduces concepts from one-dimensional flow to normal and oblique shocks to linearized flow theory in a story-like manner, with plenty of worked examples and appropriate end-of-chapter review questions. All in all, this book is about as approchable as you can get in the fluids field.

This book is a great graduate or undergraduate text on compressible flow. It covers all the major topics with thorough and elegant proofs of the equations. Anderson is probably one of the best authors who write about extended topics in fluid mechanics (CFD, aerodynamics, compressible flow). I reference this text often.