I learned from Holzer's apprentice. He taught both ordinary structural analysis, matrix analysis, FEM, conceptual structures, and wood design. My professor was the best professor I ever had. He actually cared about the students learning. He tried to get the other professors to take continuing education on teaching but none would (which made him angry). We didn't even have an FEM book. My notebook is better than any FEM book I've ever seen. I've taken two other FEM courses and learned to build the stiffness matrices in three different ways. FEM is very simple. The stiffness matrix is not a hard concept. There is nothing especially difficult to "grasp". There are only two things that you really need to remember from FEM; convergence and element DOF. Other than that, it is just simple mathmatics and basic structures. Matrix analysis is extremely simple. They are mysterious because they are computer applications. They hide in a black box somewhere. They are not rocket science. The only reason you need a computer to do the problem is that they are very computationally heavy, especially FEM. It takes 12 pages to calculate by hand the reactions of a 3 node cantilever beam using FEM. I know. I've done it.
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I don't know about the symbology Holzer used because it is the only symbology I know. I have looked at other books and taken other classes. It wasn't that difficult to change. Maybe I was just young when I took the courses. now I might have a harder time. The brain erodes over time. 10 years ago I learned another language in a year. Now it is taking me mnore than 2 years to do the same thing. Amazing.