ABSTRACT
The reader now has learned something about the mechanical properties of polymers, and hopefully has gained an appreciation of the relative complexity of polymer behavior compared to that of metals commonly used for engineering design applications. Because of this complexity, it has been necessary to build a sufficient knowledge base so that the student can more intelligently design with polymers. A systematic design procedure would be helpful so that one could chart some kind of course or direction through the maze of choices one has in selecting polymers for design. Such a systematic procedure is now presented. With it one can select materials based on criteria such as cost-to-strength ratio, weight-to-stiffness ratio, and so on.
