The lighter side of analytical/ creative thinking I604-4-8

Now and then I like to put my brain on vacation either by solving a “Word Search” in the weekly Pennysaver or by playing a few games of Spider Solitaire. Although I claim this is relaxing my brain I realize that with either one I'm doing quite a bit of what might loosely be labeled analytical/ creative thinking.

Word Search:

Problem/ goal, to find all 15 words in a matrix of letters

Peruse the 15 words buried in the 15 by 15 letter matrix.
Keep in mind that the words can be oriented top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right, right to left or on the diagonal.

Look for the easier to find words that have double letters like collection and seldom used letters such as Z.

Next look for the longer words as they seem to stand out in the matrix

While searching for the longer words be alert for the shorter words as often they will seemingly “pop” out.

When all 15 words are found, word search is finished.

Spider Solitaire:

Spider Solitaire deals cards into ten columns four of which are six cards deep and six are five cards deep. There is a remainder of 50 cards to be death 10 at a time as the bottom card on the 10 columns. I set the game up as medium difficulty using two suits and “unrestricted undo.” There is a “help” hot key and an “undo” hot key. The first objective is to “empty out” a column as then any card can be moved to the open column.

The goal is to arrange all of the cards in suits in descending order from king to ace. As a suit is completed it is removed from the playing area.

First study the playing area.

Move the cards into suits in descending order as able.

First and best choice when only one card meets the criteria of being able to be moved to a given card of the same suit do so.

Where there are two of more cards that can be moved to a given card of the same suit first click on one, undo, and click on the next until determining the best move.

Repeat these steps now placing a card of one suit over a card of the other suit.

Use the help key to check for any moves overlooked.

Once all allowable moves are completed, deal another ten cards.

Repeat until all cards are either in suits or the game is lost.

End of game.

The Lighter Side of Brain Storming:

Project/ problem to solve, NCF

My first job after college was with a container company in a group called Container Concept Development. As an aside, one of the containers that I worked on literally took off as it was used as an in-flight coffee can on 747s for years.

One day our group was brainstorming a project having the acronym NCF short for "non-cut foot." This was in the early days of pull tab metal containers. People would be at the beach, remove the pull tab and throw it in the sand. Other beach goers would step on it and cut their foot.
So what to do with the tab after it was pulled off the can? Well as stated in our reference notes, no suggestion should be criticized or overlooked. You can imagine my chagrin when later in the technical report I saw my “tongue in cheek” suggestions listed. One was to supply a stick of bubblegum with the container so the buyer could chew the gum and stick the tab to the can. The other was to have an edible tab that you would pull off and eat. I don’t remember what other suggestions I or anyone else made but for some reason, this brain storming section really sticks (a pun) in my mind.

The problem was solved years later by making the pull tab non-detachable.