Problem-solving techniques

• How do we start the process of analyzing a given problem?
• How do we start solving a problem?
• What abilities are required?
• What strategies are followed?

Rules:

• Read carefully and clearly identify the purpose and goal of the problem.
• Understand the problem; restate the problem to eliminate ambiguities and clarify its objectives.
• Identify the known information and look for hidden assumptions and consider extreme cases to gain insight into a situation.
• Identify the unknown- and wanted information.
• Restate and simplify the problem in terms of known and unknown information and state any additional assumptions and approximations. Human communication tends to be imprecise and by restating the problem, more than one interpretation may emerge.
• Break the problem, if possible, into smaller, simpler, easy to manage problems.
• Select appropriate notation to identify the known and unknown information, and if beneficial, define intermediate variables.
• Make a graph, figure, or drawing to help visualize the abstract elements of a problem (include a flowchart when appropriate).
• Construct a table. In some cases, a table may indicate a pattern that may lead to a solution or a better understanding of the problem.
• Replace the variables defined in the mathematical relations by their units and check for consistency.
• Construct a physical model when possible.
• Determine which principles, equations, or models best describe the relation that transforms the known information (called inputs) into the unknown (wanted) variables (called outputs).
• Guess a solution and check if indeed the guessed solution makes sense. Use trial and error method.
• State general solution and systematically list other approaches, exhausting all possibilities, eliminating the impossible but not the improbable.
• Select from all possible solutions the best one. The term 'best' should be defined by the problem solver. Best could mean different things to different people- it could mean the shortest, clearest, easiest, simplest, or cheapest solution.
• Once a solution is known, it is appropriate to work backwards. Verify if it is valid and correct. Analyze and test the solution with simple data to see if indeed the solution satisfies the requirements of the problem. Estimate the results and analyze the implications, such as does the solution make mathematical, logical, or physical sense?
• Test the solution using extreme and special cases and search for patterns or symmetries. 
• Find alternate solutions and compare them. 

From Misza Kalechman, 2007 or 2009?. Practical MATLAB for Engineers

disable the internet

I disabled the internet to keep myself awake.

MARK

Self-control

Nothing can be complained when I can't follow my plan. I really don't have good self-control.

I always break the rule I set for myself just three days ago and spend many many more days to enjoy anything attracting my heart. When I wake up, one week, or even more, has gone. the only thing which can wake me up is the 'deadline'. However, it doesn't help much. usually, I couldn't wake up until last night before due date. That's why I often stay up all night to work. The only result is that I screwed up my physical condition. If asked what I did to follow my bent, I would be very shame. I have never done anything meaningful. I indulged in  reading sentimental novel. I don't covet such love in my life but I am just mad about the feeling when I am reading. What makes me regret is that I can't learn anything from such reading and I lose lot of time to do what I planed. When there is no rigid deadline from supervisor, I can put off my plan to the end of my life and leave myself nothing but regret.

This is sick. I get to hate everything. I complain everything as if they make me indulge. I am so sick. Who can give me a hand? I know I should learn self-control. I am adult, even too old to be told about self-control. But I really need help. I still have ambition to be success. I hope to become a good wife, good mother, good scientist. I hope to earn lot money and can afford high quality life even for parents and siblings. I have so many good wills. God, please, don't let me indulge the meaningless thing any more.

Let's go weichun

WATER RESEARCH
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The Journal of Great Lakes Research is multidisciplinary in its coverage, publishing manuscripts on a wide range of theoretical and applied topics in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, and geology of the large lakes of the world and their watersheds.
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fighting for a post in IAGLR2010

International Association for Great Lakes Research are coming soon on May 17.
We submitted an abstract and we will send a post before the conferrence.
So I'm fighting day and night. I must finish it and leave some days for other authors to revise.

GO GO GO

The day coming

The boss wrote to my husband that we should leave for KAUST as soon as the paper work has done.

The process will take some more couple weeks I guess.

So we might have left on the mid May. That's little time!

Let's make a to-do list.

First of all, to tell my supervisor we need change our plan.
Secondly, check out what we shall take with us, what to sell, to lease, even what to buy.
Thirdly, visit our friends here in Cleveland and say goog-bye. We may hang out some more times probably.
Finally, we should choose a good place to travel as our last memory in USA. Any suggestions?

Obviously some subto-do lists should be done.

Cleveland public library

We haven't gone to the library for a while since we decided to go to KAUST and the professor there wanted to send us to another US University for some months before this.  Somehow things are not going that smoothly. We keep unknowing when will they move us. So let's enjoy.

We ran into our friend family in the entrance hall. I love their little sweet girl, Amy. Isn't she cute? She just had a little sister, Sara, who is two months now.  Amy looks like her gradma on father's side, while Sara is from mather's side. I'll miss them.

 Hi, dude, which side you choose?
What,  Children's Literature?
Are you kiding?  U R 3
Don't you want reminder me mama's responsibilities.

 Here we go!

 We are always proud of our Chinese culture which takes most space of the Foreign Literature room.

We just love it.

We are Chinese wherever and whenever we go.

Never doubt this just because I'm typing English.
I do have Chinese blog.


 We should be grateful there is such big and public library and have so many wonderful Chinese books.

 But what a pity is that most great cllections are huge both in size and weight. It's not convenient for borrowing and returning, although I very appreciate they permit to do so (in China it never happens. kiding? This is precious!). On the other hand, such literary work is born to live along with people. We need their always accompany. They make us feel the life, the pease, the mild and fragrant. Just as the Chinese saying goes:'三日不读书，便觉面目可憎，言语乏味', which means one feels self looking ugly and speaking tediously once has not read for three days.

 Unfortunately, we are always moving. Before we settle down finally, we even don't know where we are going to be. We deposit our books which are actually our precious in our friend's home when left. We hope the day come soon when we could keep rooms of books with us.

This is our common aspiration.

 Finally, we borrowed these books: Tang Shi Appreciation, Prose Appreciation, Landscape of west China and some more.

 This picture we took a square out of the library. Tao remembers the saying every time when he sees this statue. It says:  顶个球用, means one is useless except holding up a ball because, of most statues in China, the ball is above instead of under ones foot here.

On the other side of this square is Lake Erie. However it's still a little far to be pictured.

 To the memory of our lives in Cleveland.  

Rite Aid gift card

Received three RA gift cards today valued $25 each resulting from my purchasing last month.
Since we are going to move shortly, we plan to buy some other gift cards like amazon's with them.

Chen are eager to have a better Camera.
His desirement turns more reasonable after some older man told him about what meant to an old man the so called memory things.
He talks this to me every day.

Unbelievable, he means to spend thousand of dollars on a 'better camera' and meanwhile he even never use the one we already have. Just like the watch thing. He would never wear it unless I remind him. And he even wanna shop another one 'better'. GOD!!!

CHEN&TAO

We Chinese women keep our last names after married.

CHEN is husband's last name, in Chinese ‘陈’
TAO is wife's last name, Chinese ‘陶’.
While the husband's first name is TAO（涛）. Though in Chinese these two TAOs are different, it confused lot of people we met in America.

We got married in 2005 and moved to USA in 2008.

Now we are gonna move to KAUST.

Enjoy our new livies.