Solving Everyday Problems

One of the most important things we do in everyday life is solve problems. In fact, most of the decisions you make each day can be described as solving problems. 

It s 8 30 A.M. on Friday. Which is the best way to drive to school to avoid traffic congestion  

You have two tests on Monday. Should you divide your study time equally or allot more time to one than to the other  

Your car stalls at a busy intersection and your little brother is with you. What should you do next  

These are everyday problems of the type we all face. What process do we use to solve them You may not have thought about it before, but there are several steps that almost everyone uses to solve problems  

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Complex fractions may not be so common, but ratios and proportions can be used to help us solve everyday problems. Now that you are a fractions expert, it s time to learn about decimals. 

Saijo, R. Wyndhamn, J. (1993). Solving everyday problems in the formal setting. An empirical study of the school as context for thought. In S. Chaiklin J. Lave (Eds.),... 

Demonstrates how modeling can solve everyday problems for scientists in industry... 

Shortcut Equipment Design Methods tend to become buried in design procedures, even computer-based ones. Therefore they often become part of the mix and don t stand free as separate entities. This is not bad. These methods need to be placed wherever they are useful. However, it is also good to draw them out since many everyday problems can be solved with undiluted shortcuts. 

This paper shows a nice example for solving an important analytical problem using MISPE. Mycotoxins and particularly zearalenone (ZON) and /nmv-a-zearalenol (a-ZOL) present an everyday problem in food analysis. Existing sample clean-up techniques have different drawbacks. Liquid-liquid extraction is characterized by... 

The simplest way to learn the truth displayed in these two figures is to work a practical problem. Please follow the explanations given in the following problem solution, as many other similar practical everyday problems may be solved the same way. 

Recent developments in the technique have made it amenable for everyday use in pharmaceutical research and development. This article contains examples of how SSNMR can be used to solve pharmaceutical problems, along with specific applications from the literature. It is the authors opinion that SSNMR will eventually become an integral part of the pharmaceutical laboratory, from discovery to quality control. 

In the production process of an ammonia plant, a lot of process condensate is produced everyday. Usually, this kind of process condensate contains many contaminants, such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, methanol etc, which can pollute the environment if emitted directly. However, several techniques have been developed to remove the pollutants, such as stripping with natural gas and medium pressure steam, which can be applied one at a time or together, so that the recovery condensate can be reused as boiler feed water or as water makeup for other process operating units. It is very important for the plant to design a process which can solve the problem with minimum cost. This is the work that can be solved by the synthesis of MEN. 

In what ways is using a scientific approach to solving a problem similar to approaches you have used in solving problems in everyday life In what ways is it different ... 

Of all the observed asymmetries described here, the homochirality of biochemistry is perhaps the most relevant to the everyday life of the chemist, and it also could be the one enigma of the three for which a solution will first be found. An initial step toward solving this problem shall be discussed here in the framework of the theory of molecular parity violation and possible experiments on this phenomenon. 

Aromaticity is one of the most useful concepts in chemistry. We teach it in undergraduate courses, and we need it in our everyday work as chemists. To abandon this concept because it doesn t have a rigorous physical basis would mean that we would lose a very important tool to interpret and predict the properties of molecules on a qualitative basis. A theoretical physicist or chemist might argue that nowadays properties of molecules can be predicted with almost chemical accuracy. So why do we need qualitative concepts like aromaticity Ifs because chemistry is about more than the prediction of numbers. Chemistry is not a science in a strictly reductionist definition. There is a large part of an engineering-type of reasoning involved in chemistry. The analytic part of chemistry may be covered by quantum mechanics, but the constructive part is not accessible to theoretical methods (e.g., try to set up a wavefunction to solve the problem of chemical synthesis). 

In solving a problem of this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward. That is a very useful accomplishment, and a very easy one, but people do not practise it much. In the everyday affairs of life it is more useful to reason forward, and so the other comes to be neglected. 

Korte et al., Early Engineering Work Experiences, 2008. Jonassen et al., Everyday Problem Solving in Engineering, 2006. 

Jonassen, D., Strobel, J. 6c Lee, C. B. (2006) Everyday Problem Solving in Engineering Lessons for Engineering Educators.of Engineering Education, 95 (2), 139-151. 

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