TRIZ Textbooks:  CID Course for Children, 2-2W4
Methods of Solving Problems
Topic 4.  "Use What Is at Hand, and Don't Look for Anything Else". 
     (Resources)
Fantasy City:
Course of Creative Imagination Development (CID), 2nd Grade, 2nd Semester, Children Workbook
Natalia V. Rubina, 1998 [published in Russian]
English translation by Irina Dolina, May 4, 2001
Technical Editing by Toru Nakagawa, September 3, 2001
Published in this "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" in English on Sept. 11, 2001 under the permission of the Author. 
(C) N.V.Rubina, I. Dolina, T. Nakagawa, 2001

 
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Methods of Solving Problems

Topic 4.  "Use What Is at Hand, and Don't Look for Anything Else". 
(Resources)

Lesson 1

Guide-Book


Problem 16.  [Problem 19 of the Guide Book]  A foreign company used to buy from another company sun-flower oil and transport it in the tanks with capacity of 3000 liters. 
     It turned out that every time 20-30 liters were missing in a tank.  The measuring devices were checked – they were fine.  The locks on the hatch, the hermetic seals were in order.  The fact that a few liters of oil could be left on the walls of the tank was taken into consideration; but the loss was much bigger…  An experienced detective was invited.  He couldn’t find anything: the car didn’t stop anywhere and the driver didn’t pump out the oil.  The detective gave up. ..
     And at this point the Inventor appeared.
     "Oh, what’s the use of these detectives!", he said. "It’s all so simple.  One has to think for a while."
     Then he explained what the matter was. What do you think?

     One of the ways of obtaining ideal, the most desired solution of a problem is using the most available resources. The cheapest and most common resource, available to you all the time, is emptiness (or "void").  How to use it?  Let’s imagine, for example, a brick and try to improve it with the help of emptiness.  First step: we make a hole in the brick.  The brick will become lighter, it will need less material. Inside the walls of such a brick lines of communication can be laid.  Step two: we’ll make a bigger hole in the brick.  The thin walls will make the brick fragile and breakable – it will need the hard edges.  The brick with several holes becomes even lighter.  It can be used as a good heat-keeper and noise absorber.  Such a brick has also the drawbacks: it can not
be processed.  A normal brick can be cut in two-three parts, but if the one with the holes is being cut with a hammer, only fragments will remain.  Third step in the development of a brick: we’ll make many holes in a brick, but the holes are very small, to be precise, they are bubbles.  The weight of a brick is decreasing even more, heat and noise isolation is increasing.  How should a brick be treated further?  We may combine one big hole with the spongy structure of a brick.  Another step might be taken: instead of bubbles, thin holes or capillaries.  A brick illustrates unusual properties.  A bath-room, for example, built of such bricks, will be always dry.”
      (M. Rubin “Converted emptiness”, newspaper “Komsomolskoye znamya”, July 12, 1991, Tambov.)

Problem 17.  [This problem is not cited in the Guide Book]  Animals often die under the car wheels at night, while crossing the road… To stop the crossing by erecting a fence along the road is not a real thing.  How can we warn animals about an approaching car?
 

If ……………………………………………………………,
then  (+) …………………………………………………….,
but  (--)  ……………………………………………………..

 ………………………………must be …………………………..,
          in order to……………………………………..,
 and must be not ……………………………………….,
         in order to ...............................................................

................... by itself ............................................................


      Solution:

__________________________________________________




 
Guide-Book
Lesson 2

     Imagine the following situation: you are absolutely alone on an Uninhabited Island.

     There were many plants, animals, etc. on Robinson’s island.  Our island is not so rich, but we were lucky – boxes full of hats, many different hats, were washed ashore.
     Our aim is to make our life on the island comfortable.  Use the hats as a resource.
 
Your drawings and explanations.

 
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Last updated on Sept. 11, 2001.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp