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There are many ways to write a book on shells. The author might, for example, devote his attention exclusively to a special type, such as shell roofs or pressure vessels, and consider all the minor details of stress calculations and even the design. On the other hand, he might stress the mathematical side of the subject to such an extent that he virtually writes a book on differential equations under the guise of the mechanical subject. The present book has been kept away from these ex tremes. At first sight it may look to many people like a mathematics book, but it is hoped that the serious reader will soon see that it has been written by an engineer and for engineers. in a theoretical subject such as this one, it is, of course, not possible to get very far with the multiplication table and elementary trigonom etry alone. The mathematical prerequisites vary widely in different parts of the book, depending on the subject. In some parts ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients are all that is needed. In other sections ordinary equations with variable coefficients, prod uct solutions of partial differential equations, or the theory of complex variables will be encountered. However, the author wishes to assure his readers that nowhere in this book has an advanced mathematical tool been used just for the sake of displaying it. No matter which mathe matical tool has been used, it had to be used to solve the problem at hand.
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