TRIZ Textbooks:  CID Course for Children, 2-2G2
Methods of Solving Problems 

Topic 2. Both Cold and Hot
     (Physical Contradiction)
Fantasy City:
Course of Creative Imagination Development (CID), 
2nd Grade, 2nd Semester, Methodical Guide-Book
Natalia V. Rubina, 1999 [published in Russian]
English translation by Irina Dolina, May 4, 2001
Technical Editing by Toru Nakagawa, Sept. 3, 2001
Posted 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, and T. Nakagawa 2001

 
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Methods of Solving Problems

Topic 2.  Both Cold and Hot
(Physical Contradiction)

Lesson 1.

Workbook


1.  Warming-up

“Card index to the CID lessons for the second grade, part 2”.
2.  Homework
Discussing the problem about a lion and a tamer.
3.  Introduction to the lesson

Problem 10.  Imagine, that you have to squeeze a spring 10 cm long and 2 cm wide.  Put it flat between the pages of a book, close it so as the spring stays squeezed.
     You can squeeze the spring between two fingers.  But then you have to unclench the fingers otherwise you won’t be able to close the book.  And the spring will be released… This situation faced the engineers, while they were making some device.  They had to squeeze a spring, put it inside and close the cover. How can they do it without releasing the spring?
     The spring must be free and not free, squeezed and released.

4.  Main topic
 

     “If we have to believe Baron Munchausen, the fox he had caught could get out of its own skin.  Let’s leave this hunt story on the Baron’s conscience.  But something like that happen to the inventory problems!  The hunt for the answers has started, the technical contradiction has been caught, and it seems the answer is at hand…  But at this point, the answer escapes.
    Even if you have seized the technical contradiction, you are never sure that you have caught the answer.  As a matter of fact the same technical contradiction can be overcome by lots of different methods.
     The technical contradictions are caused by these or those physical reasons: in the depth of any technical contradiction a physical contradiction is hidden.  It looks like that: “The given part of the technical system must possess property A, in order to carry out an action, and it must possess an opposite property, anti-A, to carry out another action”.  Mind that the technical contradiction is relevant to the whole system or to some parts of it, while the physical contradiction is relevant only to one part.   This makes it easier to find an answer.”
     G. Altov: “And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared”, Moscow, “Detskaya literatura”, 1989, p.20.

Activity 1.   Choose a pair of opposite properties (small – big).  Enumerate the systems, that possess these properties, write them down in the first and the second columns of the table.
     Find as many systems as you can that possess these properties and anti-properties at the same time, put them down in the third column of the table.
     The activity is better to be done in groups or using the elements of the method of team education.  The children get the cards, with a pair of opposite properties, written on them.  During a limited period of time, for example, 10 minutes, they have to come up to the maximum number of their classmates and with their help they have to find as many systems, possessing these properties, as possible.
 
Property  anti-property property – anti-property
small
                   ball 		 big
                 glove		 both small and big
                kitten


6.  Activities on speech developing and designing a creative product

     The continuation of the previous activity might be studying one more method of devising a riddle.  If you combine the first and the second columns by a link, i.e. a word “as”, you will get a riddle.  The answer you will find in the third column.

     Contradictory riddles.

     As small as a ball, as big as a globe.

 A kitten.
4.  Main topic  (continuation)

     In order to solve this problem, it is necessary that in the system where this contradiction has emerged the opposite properties should combine.
     Let’s investigate the problem about a spring.
     The spring must be squeezed to be placed in the device, and must be released to enable us to cover the lid.
     Let’s be more specific.  The spring must be squeezed, when it is put into the device (while the lid is not closed), and must be released, while the device is working.

       Solution:  ______________________________________________

     It was suggested that the squeezed spring should be frozen.  In this position it is easier to be put into the device.
Definition 2. The physical contradiction manifests itself in the fact that an object  must be in two opposite states.
The system must be A, in order to …………………………..,
and it must be not A, in order to……………………………….


Problem 11.  It’s common knowledge that the legendary Portoss’ was very fussy about his clothes.  Once, when the musketeer came to his tailor’s shop, he was irritated by the tailor, fussing around him.  “Don’t touch me by your ruler!”- Portoss shouted, getting tired.  What should the tailor do?  How to take the musketeer’s measures without touching him?

     Take your time, trying to guess, first, articulate the contradiction.

…………... must be………, in order to………………………..........,
and must be not ……….., in order to……..…………………….
     If we touch Portoss by a ruler, then (+) we will take his measures, but (–) the musketeer will be angry.
     If we don’t touch Portoss by a ruler, then (+) Portoss will be pleased, but (–) we won’t be able to take his measures.
     Portoss must be “measured”, in order to get his measures, and he mustn’t be “measured”, in order to be pleased.
     How can we measure Portoss without measuring him?
     The solution was proposed by A. Dumas in his novel “Ten Years After”.  At the  tailor’s shop Maulier led Portoss to the mirror and took the measure from his reflection…


7.  Sum up

Homework:
     Contradictory riddles.
.


Workbook
Lesson 2

1.  Warm-up

"Card index to the CID lessons for the second grade, part 2”
2.  Homework
Contradictory riddles.
3.  Introduction to the lesson
How to present something big and small at the same time?
4.  Main topic

     The ability of articulating the contradictions will help us to understand the following problems.

Problem 13.  The plant was ordered to produce a big batch of oval glass plates, 1 millimeter thick.  The workers cut rectangular stocks and had to smooth down the edges to make them oval.  But while being processed on the grinding mill, the thin plates used to break often.  It is impossible to make thicker plates because the order was thin plates.  The stocks must be thick and thin at the same time.  This contradiction may be divided in time: let the stocks be thick during processing.  How to do this?

………………………must be……………, in order to….………………………,
and must be not  …………………., in order to….…………………….
     The contradictions are articulated in the problem.
     The stocks must be thin to satisfy the requirements of the order, and must be thin not to break during processing.
     Studying the method of assembling–dissembling, we have already faced the same problem.  (Thin glass sticks won’t break if during transportation they are tied together by the string).
     During processing the thin plates are put together in a thick package.


     *******  pages 31 - 32 are temporarily missing in this translated version

Problem 14.  During the shooting of V. Peskov’s film about the animal life in Alaska, the American cinema workers were impressed when they saw five little foxes throw themselves at the camera.  The foxes are very shy animals and to shoot such an episode seemed impossible – the small foxes didn’t let the people approach them.  How did they manage to shoot the foxes so close?

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

 
 

6.  Activities on speech developing and designing a creative product
 
 
 

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