Lateral thinking

My blog post for this week will be 'lateral thinking.' The definition of lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.  

For last week's lesson, we've been asked to connect 9 dots together in just 4 straight lines, without lifting our pencils up, as shown in the picture below.




No matter how many times I tried, I could only join the dots altogether with 5 straight lines, not 4. My classmate got the answer in 10 minutes so she explained to the the class how she got it. She used the concept of 'stars' and the rule did not mention for us not to draw the straight lines within the 9 dots. What she did was to draw a straight line across, followed by a triangle which is drawn out of the 9 dots. 







The next question our class was asked was 'If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there were only an oil lamp, a candle and firewood, and you only have 1 match, which would you light first?' 



http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/under-the-oil-lamp-light-richard-mitchell.jpg




http://s120.photobucket.com/user/jjw801/media/blogs/candle_11.jpg.html





http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/styles/borealis_article_hero_respondlarge/public/fireplace_16149966.jpg?itok=xgvYNaEy


 Most of the answers I heard was, they would light up the candle first because the candle can light up all the other things. For me, I'll light the oil lamp first because the flame would not be easily distinguish due to the oil and its coverage around the flame. If I light up the candle first, the flame may distinguish if the wind is too strong. Lighting up the oil lamp, i can also light up the other 2 things easily. 


Lateral thinking allows you to think differently from your friend, completely from a different perspective, and its a skill one possesses.