Here is another title belonging to the world popular Demystified series intended to offer readers a practical coverage of the important and complex course of statics and dynamics. Written by the expert in the field, David McMahon, has followed the standard learning curriculum. The content of the book will discover how exactly the forces affect different objects both in motion and at rest, and will be easily understood even by the people without formal training in the field - they will all be offered a very effective and even entertaining way of learning this basic engineering topic.

The book starts with a review of the vector calculus, followed by the chapters covering the gravity and forces, as well as friction and moment of inertia. After that, the readers will proceed to the dynamics, starting with the basic fundamentals of the particles, rotation and circular motion, power and energy, work and vibrational motion. The main content concludes with the introduction to Hamiltonian and Lagrangian methods.

The volume will give you hundreds of worked examples provided with the solutions, perfectly explained theory of statics and dynamics without any unnecessary and complicated technical jargon used, and the final examination at the end. The book is simply enough for the beginners.

The book offers a perfect presentation of the machining of spindles, but there also some useful information on selection of the bearings, spindle mounts, internal tapers and other important aspects. The content is well-written and illustrated, and also supplemented with the examples, so it will definitely be very easily understood by the readers regardless of their level of technical knowledge.

Numerous live examples of the spindles have been provided together with the detailed procedures and practical tips. There is some bonus material included by the author and addressing the thread cutting, lathe alignment and some other relevant information. This book shall be treated as a very practical source for all people involved in the design of the spindles, building tool post grinders, special applications or just willing to learn a bit more about the correct using of the lathe.

All plans and instructions contained in the publication are very clear and, what is also very important, are all do-able. A really decent volume presenting a listing of the designs tested by the author and provided with the drawings. However, the author has decided not to go too deep into the theory of the spindle design. This volume is considered the ideal one for the beginners in the field.

The series of international technical conferences held with the purpose of improvement of the Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles has been running since 1975, and, on behalf of the National Committee, I am very proud that Australia was chosen to host the 7th conference in February 2000.

The objectives of the present conference series is to promote a full exchange of methodologies and ideas related to the stability of ships as well as ocean vehicles. It creates practical opportunities to all marine industry pros, including ship constructors,  naval architects, officers of the various certifying and inspection authorities, regulatory agencies, capsize prevention researchers, ship and platform owners, and others to present, discuss and listen to improvements in capsizing prevention for all sizes and types of floating structures.

The most important aspect of any floating object is its ability to remain afloat and upright under all expected conditions. Even this most basic of requirements can elude professionals in the field, usually with very serious consequences. It is therefore vital that all of us who are concerned with the operation and design of ships and ocean vehicles devote the utmost effort to ensuring they are as safe as possible. Only by sharing knowledge and experience can we continue to improve safety, which is the primary motivation for this important conference series.

The present paper provides all interested parties with some brief description of the work the IMO has undertaken in respect of development of the international requirements and recommendations on intact/damage stability for various types of ships during the period 1990-1994. This paper also includes a brief account of the current works on this subject within the Sub-Committee on Stability and Load Lines and on Fishing Vessels Safety which is the IMO's body responsible for the activities of this Organization in the subject area.

The IMO was founded by the UN Conference held in Geneva in 1946. In 1958 the Organization came into being as the only UN specialized agency solely concerned with maritime affairs. The establishment of IMO was initiated by the recognition of fact that, because of the international nature of the maritime industry, it is only through concerted efforts of States, co-ordinated on an international level, that action to enhance safety at sea would be much more effective, and that a permanent body coordinating and promoting further measures leading to a more continuing basis would serve well the cause of maritime safety.

The main objective of IMO is to facilitate co-operation among governments in technical matters affecting shipping in order to achieve the highest practically possible standards of maritime safety and navigation. since 1967, the Organization has given special emphasis to issues of pollution prevention of sea from ships and to legal matters associated with its technical work...

One of the main purposes of the Organization consists of promoting the highest practical standards of maritime safety and navigation, and the Sub-Committee on Stability and Load Lines and on Fishing Vessels Safety in its current, as well as in its previous, work undertakes all possible effort to incorporate the latest achievements related to both design and theoretical areas into its existing standards as well as in regulations actually being developed.

So far, intact stability requirements and recommendations have been developed for passenger ships, cargo ships, fishing vessels, dynamically supported craft, MODUs, offshore supply vessels, special purpose ships and sea-going pontoons, thus covering the overwhelming majority of the world's merchant fleet. Standards of damage stability were introduced for the first time for passenger ships in the 1948 SOLAS Convention and re-adopted by the 1960 and 1974 SOLAS Conventions. For some specific categories of ships, such as tankers, chemical tankers and gas carriers, IMO developed sets of requirements and recommendations based on the principle of prevention of massive spillage of their cargo into the sea; the current "state of the art" for other types of vessels has been given below.

The detailed description or IMO's activities related to the development of stability standards within the period 1962 to 1986 was given in papers presented at the Second and Third International Conferences on Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles held in 1982 in Tokyo and in 1986 in Gdansk, respectively. This paper summarizes the progress achieved by the SLF Sub-Committee since 1986...

As long as shipping existed ships were exposed to the hostile environment and shipbuilders from the oldest times learned that in order to survive in this environment ships had to stable. They developed also by the method of trials and errors the practical knowledge how to build comparatively stable ships, however hot stable enough to ensure the safe completion of the voyage.

In modern times understanding of basic laws of ship's geometry and static stability enabled naval architects to make calculations during the design stage, then developments in ship hydrodynamics allowed to calculate the behaviour of ship in a seaway and the effect of external forces on stability. Nevertheless from time to time ships were lost as a result of capsizing quite often with all hands onboard. Even introduction by some nations of stability regulations which also included certain stability criteria did not eliminate casualties.

For more than twenty years IMO have made numerous attempts to establish international requirements for ship stability. The achieving of this aim is now becoming possible because of the latest development of stability criteria, which is one of the most complex problems of ship design and construction.

It has always been quite gratifying to attract a large gathering of distinguished experts from all over the world to a particular location for discussion on aspects of their specialist subject. In this case the location was the University of Strathelyde, Glasgow and the subject was the important topic of intact stability of ships and ocean vehicles. The two main purposes of the conference were to provide a forum at international level for the discussion of research findings on stability, and to facilitate the use of such research findings as guidelines for future research efforts and encourage the practical application of the results.

The conference was unique in that it was the first occasion on which so many experts on the topic were gathered under the one roof to examine stability. The opportunity thus presented to elicit the opinions of such a group was too good to miss and this brief report comments on the methods adopted and the results achieved in a delegate survey. It would be very good and useful to go through the materials collected in such compilations in order to be in line with the developments in the industry, starting from the very first conference. That is why we would recommend to have all of the articles readily available.

For the first time in recent history. Russia is hosting an esteemed international conference in the field of stability and safety of ships and ocean vehicles. This is a token of recognition of the contribution made by Russian researchers in this field for the last hundred years. Traditionally. STAB conferences are places for the exchange of information on the most recent results, formulation new ideas and directions of research, as well as a place for discussions of new proposals for stability criteria and standards.

This is why there are well-established sets of sessions like Rules and Criteria. Intact Stability. Damage Stability. Nonlinear Dynamics, etc. The difference between the conferences was mostly on key problems that were discussed within the frames of these sessions. This conference has a large number of papers focused on numerical and IT aspects of stability-related problems. Inevitably, as these problems became complex or diverse, use of new information technologies comes into the focus. These technologies are now considered from a new point of view: not so much as just a more powerful computing tool, but rather focusing on facilitation of the exchange of data and knowledge between researchers.

There is an understanding that these technologies are needed, not because they are convenient, but because new problems cannot be solved without these new technologies. This understanding becomes a factor of progress just by itself. Almost ninety papers were submitted for the conference, and the authors of these papers represent more than twenty countries. All the papers were peer-reviewed. I hope that the hard work of the reviewer's will help the conference be a success. I would also like to acknowledge the great help from the members of the international standing committee, particularly. Dr. Vadim Belenky. Prof. Kostas Spyrou. Prof. Alberto Francescutto and Prof. Luis Peres Rojas.

However, the conference is being held at a time that is not easy at all for the global economy. It makes it even more valuable that the spread of participation covers the entire world: Japan. Korea. Europe. Australia, New Zealand, and the Americas. It shows how important, as an international event...