What is a guide used to solve problems?

Hi,

A guide to solve problems could be any resource which gives you a method that by using it will help you solve problems. It could be a tutorial about how to approach certain types of difficulties in general, or it could be more specific and address a certain type of problem. Hope I understood your question.   

1)  Computer

2)  Calculator

3)  Internet

 4)  Brain

5)  Textbook

text book

I wonder if any of these people here, besides yours' unruly, have earned a degree in an actual hard science?

The scientific method uses three primary tools to solve problems: reduction, analysis, application.  Logical problem solving goes a long way past that but this will get you started.

1.  Reduction.  Reduce the question at hand to it's essentials.  What did you hope to learn: the atomic physics of a germanium capacitor or the way weight settles on a building foundation?  Write it down in detail, then cancel out any repeated questions.  Add more questions until you know exactly what you are trying to learn.

2.  Analysis.  Analyze the problem from a logical perspective.  Consider previous work, published papers, historical data, eyewitness reports, accident reports, etc.  Reduce your analysis to its basics, again, looking for practical effects.  Conduct controlled experiments, that others will be able to duplicate.  Falsify your work (try your utmost to prove it wrong) and then, analyze your data again. 

3.  Application.  Apply the results of your experiment to the actual thing you were trying to figure out.  Test your hypothesis with predictions, that if your theory is correct, nature will bear out significantly.  Again, consider only significant results. They may be small, but they will be definite.  Measure, quantify.  Be utterly objective, and measure everything: guesswork is unscientific at best.  We may start out with an unsupported hypothesis (some are scant more than oppressive fraternity pranks -- evolution, for one) and then, argue your point in firm terms that your colleagues will understand.  You may have to beat atheists over the head with a 2X6 to get them to believe in your work, but actual researchers -- even at the primary school level -- subject their work to scientific rigor. 

Did your procedure solve the problem you worked on?  If so, show the results: your word is good enough, if you can back up what you are saying with hard data.  If not, then what went wrong?  Find that out any way it takes.  It can take years of experimentation to prove/disprove your idea.  Be patient: the insight and results will come.

Awfully complicated. Just keep it simple, stupid (KISS).  Also, what makes you so sure evolution is an "oppressive fraternity prank"?  Can your scientific approach, or ANY actual "hard science" PROVE the existence of a Higher Power?  I don't think so.

Dr. Dave, without going through the whole paper, we have already discredited atheism in every way that can be imagined.  We proved God exists, we proved Christ's claims true, we proved that atheists like Stalin and Hitler torture people and then lie about those whom their irate and fanatical proselyting religion-in-perverse has murdered over the centuries.

We proved it mathematically in every way that confirms the need for scientific rigor, but we also proved that atheist cult fanatics are irrational and bitter.

That is why the atheist cult was discredited and its members censured out of the scientific community on a disciplinary basis.

Finally, if you exist, then you came from somewhere.

That somewhere is God.

Now, may we please get back to science instead of rampaging atheist fanatical religious cult intimidation?

PLEASE?!?!?!

One of the guides I know is PEMDAS. First solve anything in parenthesis, then solve anything with exponents, then any multiplication or division (read either one from left to right [3x4/6=12/6=2 or another example would be: 6/2x3=3x3=9]), then any addition or subtraction (again read from left to right [3+2-8=

5-8=-3 or another example would be: 5-3+2=2+2=4]). If there is anything like an exponent inside parenthesis, solve the exponent first then the rest of the problem in the parenthesis. Kind of like following the PEMDAS rule in parenthesis. Oh! One more thing. To remember PEMDAS, you can think: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.

Here is a wrap up:

Parenthesis: ()

Exponents: 4 to the 4th power

Multiplication OR Division

Addition OR Subbtraction.

There you go!