Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank 'Baba Visvanath' for his blessings in writing this book.

A large number of people directly or indirectly helped me in completing this book and I would be failing in my duty if I do not say a word of thanks to all those whose sincere advice and support helped to make this book educative, effective and pleasurable.

I would like to thank my father, Dr Vijay Nath Pandey; mother, Madhuri Pandey; sisters, Anjana and Ranjana; and brother, Man Mohan, for their patience and understanding. They never complained about the countless hours I spent seemingly glued to the computer keyboard while creating this text.

I have immense pleasure in expressing my wholehearted gratitude towards Dr T. R. Narayanan, Dean, MECIT, Muscat; Arun Sankarapaa, MECIT, Muscat; Dr Anurag Dixit, Senior Professor, VIT, Vellore; Dr R. R. Sedamkar, Thakur College of Engineering, Mumbai; Dr N. S. Choubey, NMIMS University, Mumbai; Vivek Sharma, MPSTME, NMIMS University, Mumbai; Dr Malvika Sharma, NMIMS University, Mumbai; and Professor B. Salendra, NMIMS University, Mumbai.

I am very much thankful to my students whose conceptual queires have always helped me in digging deep into the subject matter. I am also thankful to Bharat Thodji and Mahendra Joshi for their support in laboratory activities during the writing of this book.

I cannot forget to express my thanks to my close friends Shreedhar Desmukh and Jitendra Pandey for their support during writing of the book. I am also thankful to Anand Gawdekar for his help in providing me with the reference material on time whenever required during the writing process.

I want to extend special thanks to the editorial team of Pearson Education for their encouragement and support at each stage of the process and in publication of the book.

HARI MOHAN PANDEY