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The Solution Essay

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The Solution

The business man behind a desk, the scientist in the lab, the artist approaching his canvas, the mathematician examining the symbols he placed on the blackboard--the thoughts going through each of their heads are very different in many ways, yet amazingly similar.

For example, the business man must come up with an idea to cut costs and increase revenue for his company. He must find a creative twist to an old idea, a new combination of numbers that allows the company to increase profit and drop costs. Yet this man strays from the numbers and thinks in images, and during the brief moment before the creative act his consciousness seems to play absolutely no role.

Often times we must get away from the …show more content…

They were concentrating on how to get the top of the truck away from the top of the tunnel so that the truck could pass. This is a very complicated problem: the top of the truck is metal and does not give easily, meanwhile the tunnel is concrete and solid as well. The engineers might have figured out the force necessary to push the truck out of the tunnel, but this would involve a bulldozer or tow truck. Both would be hindered by the traffic and would take time. There are many factors besides just the force necessary to push the truck that affect the solution, with the most important factors being time and the inability to destroy the truck or the tunnel. The girl succeeded with limited knowledge of physics and without destroying the truck or the tunnel.

The girl saw that the truck had to get away from the top of the tunnel, but she understood that this was the same as making the truck get closer to the ground. This is simple and only requires some modification of the tires. What had started out as a complicated problem ended up being very simple. The girl had no background in Physics or measurements, so she relied on what she knew. She could visualize the air being released from the tires, the truck driving through the tunnel, and her going home. Her lack of knowledge assisted her in solving the problem by keeping her away from the symbols and numbers.

I remember a lesson I had once

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