TRIZ Textbooks:  CID Course for Children, 2-1W5
Topic 5.  Methods of Making Images  Lesson 1.  To Increase - To Shrink Lesson 2.  To Assemble -To Disassemble Lesson 3.  Upside Down Lesson 4.  To Speed Up - To Slow Down Lesson 5.  Transit in Time Lesson 6.  Binomial of Fantasy
Fantasy City: Course of Creative Imagination Development (CID), 2nd Grade, 1st Semester, Children Workbook
Natalia V. Rubina, 1998 [published in Russian] English translation by Irina Dolina, April 2, 2001 Technical Editing by Toru Nakagawa, July 15, 2001
Published in this "TRIZ Home Page in Japan" in English on Jul. 17, 2001 under the permission of the Author.  (C) N.V.Rubina, I. Dolina, T. Nakagawa, 2001

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1. Increase - shrink

2. Assemble - disassemble

3. Upside down

4. Speed up - slow down

5. Transit in time

6.  Binomial of Fantasy

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Topic 5.  Methods of Making Images

Lesson 1.  To Increase - To Shrink

     Emil has got for you a new problem.  Every day, coming home from work, a man doesn’t reach his ninth floor but comes out at the sixth floor, and then he climbs the stairs.  Why?

     The magician Deli-Davai has a friend, a wizard Giant-Little One.  Do you know why he has such an unusual name?  He can increase and shrink everything around.  Help the wizard to find out which is better to be big or small in order to:

To enjoy a delicious cake                  __________________
Not to be late for a train                   __________________
To finish eating a nasty porridge      __________________
To reach the sky                              __________________
To talk to the insects                        __________________

     The wizard Giant-Little One can increase and shrink everything.  But there is a certain condition: he makes a small thing big and a big thing – small. Therefore, if you want the wizard to increase anything, you need to prove that this object is – small.  And if you want to have it shrunk, prove that this object is – big.  So…
 
 

Activity.   While constructing a hospital in a small Finish town the architects have come across a problem.  All the buildings in the town are small, 2-3-stories.  The hospital according to the project has to contain many large premises – the building must be big and high.  How to combine such contradictory demands?

Guide-Book

     Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy told his students the following parable:

     A father had three sons.  They lived in peace and friendship, worked together in a field, and helped each other in everything.  Then their father grew old and got sick.  The sons began to look suspiciously at each other: "Whom will our father leave his wealth…?"
     The father found out about it.  He called his sons and said: ”I’ll give you an assignment”.  The one who carries it out, will be my heir.  Here is a broom made of willow twig – try to break it…” 
     The brothers tried to break the broom: turned it this way and that way but could do nothing.  They came to their old father: ”We can not carry out your assignment…”
     “Well, well”, – said the father, unwinding the string that kept the twigs together, – “every separate twig can be easily broken, but if they are together, it is impossible to break them.  So in life: as long as you are together, you can not be crushed, but if you are separated, it is easily done…”

     The magician Deli-Davai has taught us to assemble and disassemble things.  We know that everything in the world consists of parts and is a part of something even larger.  Today Deli-Davai will teach us to apply the method of assembling – disassembling for solving creative problems and designing unusual toys.  So…

Problem 1.
     Once the telephone rang in Emil’s house.  His aunt asked him to bring her urgently the slim long glass sticks, which she had left behind during her last visit.  Emil is always glad to help his favorite aunt, but there is a problem – the sticks are long and slim: no matter where you put them they will get broken.  What to do?

Problem 2.
     Once the troops of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, came up to the river Sink.  They stayed along the river bank.  On the other bank there were enemies.   The bonfires from their camp were seen.  It was necessary to cross the river and to take the enemies by surprise.  There were three boats near the shore.  The great general started to think: if to put many soldiers into each boat, it is dangerous , they may get drowned; if to put less soldiers – there won’t be enough time before the morning.  What is to be done?

Problem 3. 
     Once the scholars got together to discuss how to fight the weevil.  And it turned out that they knew about this weevil very little.  Nobody knew, for example, what is the temperature of its body.
     - Weevil is small, - said one scholar, - a regular thermometer can not be used.
     - We need to construct a special device, - agreed another, - we’ll lose much time ...
     And then the Inventor appeared.
     - We don’t need any new devices, he said.  Take an ordinary …
     What did the inventor proposed?
 

     Let’s come back mentally to the morphological chart.  Designing a new toy, we also used the method “assemble–disassemble”.  In the next assignment it is necessary to change simpler systems.
 
 

Draw any system, consisting of triangles, circles and squares.

Guide-Book

     There are words and even whole expressions, which are read from the right to the left and from the left to the right in the same way.  They are called palindromes.
 

     Read upside down..
     Do you know such words?

     Find a character “upside down”:
 

     Sometimes the rivers flow in an opposite direction.  It happens, for example, with Dnieper, Ob, and other big rivers [in Russia].  During spring high flood the flows are free from ice quicker, and the water, reaching the  river-bed, come back..
 

    How to make up a system “upside down”?
 

Problem.
     When the prosthetic appliance is being made for the legs, it is very important that an artificial leg was exactly like the real one.  It seems not a difficult task – one should make a mould from the real leg and make in it an artificial one.  But as a matter of fact, it doesn’t work because nobody needs the identical legs.  What should be done?
 

     In Fantasy City there is a street, where everything is upside down: a house – upside down, the trees – upside down, the cars – upside down…
 

Guide-Book

Methods of Making Images
Lesson 4.  To Speed Up - To Slow Down

     Two horsemen are contesting which horse will come to the finish last.  But nothing happens – they both are standing still.  They turned for an advice to a wise man.  The old man came up and whispered something to both of them.  After that they started to ride as fast as they could.  What did the wise man tell them?

     How to find out who came to the finish first?

    Finish the sentences: 

      What can be fast and slow at the same time?
 
 

Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet decided to go on a visit.  On their way they met the wizard Zamri-Otomri (Stand Still – Relax).  He can slow down or speed up everything.  The wizard touched Winnie-the-Pooh and the little bear stood still.  He touched Piglet – the little pig began to roll like a top.  How can they go on a visit together?

Make a picture of Zamri-Otomri.

     In Fantasy City there is an unusual tram: it goes sometimes very fast (as a plane) and sometimes very slow (as a turtle).  Make a schedule of this tram in such a way that the inhabitants of the city should be happy to have such a tram.
 

Guide-Book

     He walked but his shoes didn’t wear out.  I decided to help him, but I did even worse: now he can not walk even with my help.  What are we talking of?

     What is time?  Even the ancient philosophers were looking for an answer to this riddle.  Nothing seems so common as time!  It exists everywhere – any event is happening in time, and our life as well.  But if one thinks deeper, we all will face the Great Mystery of Time.  So then not one, but a whole ocean of questions will arise.  Why time is universal?  Why does it flow everywhere.

     Ancient philosophers used to say: “One can not enter the same river twice”.  Because between the first and second entering time will pass and the water which you have stepped in, will just flow away.  There will be new water in the river and it means that the river itself will be different.
     But when you step into the river for the first time, is the water still?  Of course, not.  It flows all the time without a stop.  Entering the water, you will find out that the river changes continuously.  So the ancient paradox is justified.  “One can not enter the same river twice".

     The similar thing happens to the time.  It flows everywhere and permanently.  So, one can not enter the river of Time twice.  So to say, nothing can be done in the same way.  The most looking alike events will be different after all, because they are separated in time.  And what if they are happening at he same time?  It doesn’t make any difference, – one can not enter the same river of Time twice.  Therefore not a single second resembles another one.  Besides, this “the only one” second will never repeat itself!  One can find oneself in “the same place” lots of times, but to be there “at the very same time" is impossible.  And it is so because time flows only in one direction – from the past to the future and never flows back.  So, what is the future or the past?  What is the present?  Actually, if one thinks thoroughly, it appears that the present does not exist after all.  The present is just a “transient apparition”, nearly an instant between the past and the future.

     Some day the Great Mystery of Time will be solved.  But at present nobody knows for sure what time is.  Only one thing is obvious for everybody – one shouldn’t waste time on trifles – it will never come back.
 

Guide-Book

     “Doctor Poliphemo, on coming home, looks for his jacket in his wardrobe and sees a dog inside.  The dog is of uncertain breed.  Maybe he is trained for mushroom hunting, or cyclomen [a flower] hunting, or rododendron [a flower] hunting.  He is friendly, wags his tail, gives politely his paw, but he wouldn’t get out of the wardrobe.  No matter how much time Doctor Poliphemo asked him to leave, the dog was implacable.  Poliphemo went to his bath room to take a shower and there, in the cabinet, he discovered another dog.  The third one is in the kitchen cabinet surrounded by the saucepans, the fourth one – in a washing basin, one more – in a half frozen state – a refrigerator.  A pretty puppy is hiding  in a corner for the mops, and a small Bologneese is in a drawer of his desk. 
     Doctor Poliphemo could have called an operator and ask him to throw the uninvited guests out of the apartment, but Doctor Poliphemo is a dog-lover and his heart prompts him otherwise.  He ran out to the butcher’s store and bought ten kilograms of fillet to feed his guests. From now on every day he buys ten kilograms of meet.
     It can not passed unnoticed.  The butcher felt that something was wrong.  Talks, rumor and aspersion started.  What if Dr. Poliphemo is hiding in his apartment the spies, who are after the nuclear secrets?  What if he performs some devil experiments in his apartment?  Why does he need so much meet ?  The poor doctor began to lose his clients.  The police got some information against Poliphemo.  The head of the Police ordered to search the doctor’s apartment.  Only then it became clear that Dr. Poliphemo suffered because he was a dog lover."
                (G. Rodari: "Grammar of Fantasy", Moscow, “Progress”, 1990, pp. 28.)
 

     What does the word “binomial” mean?

     So, choose two words:

     Unite them, using different prepositions (in, on, near, under, over and others):

 –
 –
 –
 –
 –
 –
 –

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1. Increase - shrink

2. Assemble - disassemble

3. Upside down

4. Speed up - slow down

5. Transit in time

6.  Binomial of Fantasy

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Last updated on Jul. 17, 2001.     Access point:  Editor: nakagawa@utc.osaka-gu.ac.jp