Chapter List

Part Overview

Overview

When you see a town for the first time some things strike your eyes and some things are missed. The same thing happens with our excursion into TRIZ. After reading over everything written, I found nothing said about several interesting methods. In order to get a better feeling for these methods, we will begin with a problem.

Problem 49: The Train will Leave in Five Minutes

Big wooden logs are loaded onto open railroad cars. An inspector measures the diameter of each log in order to calculate the volume of the load. This work progresses very slowly. "We have to hold the train," the chief inspector said. "We cannot finish today."

And suddenly, of course, the inventor appeared.

"I have an idea!" he exclaimed. "The train can leave in five minutes. Take..."

And he explained what should be taken, and what needed to be done. What can you offer?

When this problem was published in the youth magazine Pioneer Truth, correct answers were received from those children who remembered that a technical contradiction should be removed in order to solve a technical problem.

Here are some of the incorrect answers:

• Let this work be done by a team of 300 500...