FREE ESSAY ON THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Thinking Outside The Box 
The invention of the wheel was a miraculous invention, along with the airplane, and the
telephone. All the inventions that have ever been created weren't just something that was
already
drawn out on a piece of paper for the inventors. They had to think. They had to imagine
the
masterpiece before it was even a physical object. These people weren't just thinkers or
inventors.
These people "Thought Outside the Box." The writer Sarah Susanka, the author of "The Not
So
Big House," once said that "The ability to think creatively, responding to needs and
wishes, not
to preconceived ideas of what something should look like, then the problem will be
solved."
[SIC] What I think she means by this is if you are going to make something or do
something for
the people of the world, don't assume or pretend you know what they want. Go out, ask
them,
figure it out and then when you have completed the finished product it will be
successful. Many
people who try to invent something are not successful because they are afraid to break
the
confines of the outline. What I mean by this is that the people are so accustomed to
thinking like
everybody else, they are afraid to explore the possibilities of their mind. They can't
picture
something that already isn't there. Often a person will see something that was invented
and
wonder why they never thought of something so simple. The answer is very
uncomplicated...
they didn't break the confines of the out line. Normally, when people do a puzzle, they
will have
to think about the answers, sort of like a maze. If what they first try doesn't work then
they have
to try another direction to see if something else will work. Those people, even though
they don't
know it have just thought outside the box. They have decided that rather than quitting,
they are
going to keep trying, and see if they can find another way to do it. Even though the
answer was
right in front of them, they still had to think and look for it. One great thinker is
Werner
Heisenberg. He invented "Matrix mechanics." It was the first version of quantum
mechanics. He
didn't invent the concepts of matrix algebra; however, focused attention on a set of
quantised
probability amplitudes. The "matrix" mechanics was further developed in a three-author
paper
by Heisenberg, Born and Jordan, published in 1926. Heisenberg published The Physical
Principles of Quantum Theory in 1928. In 1932 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics
for
this work. Although he was awarded the Nobel for his matrix mechanics, he was much
better
known for his Uncertainty Principle that he discovered in 1927. Heisenberg was quoted in
1969
as saying the following about the Slovay Conference in Brussels that he attended in 1927
: "To
those of us who participated in the development of atomic theory, the five years
following the
Slovay Conference in Brussels in 1927 looked so wonderful that we often spoke of them as
the
golden of age of atomic physics. The great obstacles that had occupied all our efforts in
the
preceding years had been cleared out of the way; the gate to an entirely new field, the
quantum
mechanics of the atomic shells stood wide open, and fresh fruits seemed ready for the
picking."
Around the year 1925 Heisenberg was working on a new description of matter. His
ruminations
led him to assert a new principle that has become a "Hallmark" of quantum theory. This
description of matter is now known as matrix mechanics. It is the complete mathematical
theory
of the behaviour of atoms and their constituents. It is a very difficult field to study,
but with the
help of Born and Jordan, the study was a success. The matrix mechanics is a part of
mathematics
known as the quantum mechanics. So the quantum ideas work. They are developed from the
concept that matter is wave-like in its behaviour. The quantum mechanics remained
mysterious
until 1927, when Heisenberg -following conversations with Bohr and Einstein - discovered
the
uncertainty principle. Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle" said that it is impossible to
find out
exactly where an object is and how fast it is moving at the same time. If you were to try
that
process then you would have to stop the object to see where it is at that speed, or at
that point in
time. This is fine but as soon as you stop it you no longer have to speed and momentum to
the
object. There is no guarantee that you can just say that because the object was moving a
certain
speed that obviously it still will have the same results. This is because there are many
things that
can effect your result. If you were to try to find out both of them at the same time all
your
information would become impossible to understand. Because of figuring out such an
informative theory Heisenberg has been awarded many time. He received the following
awards:
The Nobel Prize in 1932, and the Follow of the Royal Society in 1955. Another of
Heisenberg's
great moments in life was during the Second World War. Here he headed the "unsuccessful"
German nuclear weapons project. He worked with Otto Hahn, one of the discoverers of
nuclear
fission, on the development of a nuclear reactor but failed to develop an effective
program for
nuclear weapons. Whether this was because of lack of resources or a lack of a desire to
put
nuclear weapons in the hands of the Nazis is unclear. After the war he was interned in
Britain
with other leading German scientists. However, he returned to Germany in 1946 when he
was
appointed director of the Max Planck institute for physics and Astrophysics at Gottingen.
In
1958 the Institute moved to Munich and Heisenberg continued as its director. This man was
very
talented and had many other interests. Such as in the philosophy of physics, and because
of this
great interest he wrote "Physics and Philosophy" in 1962 and "Physics and Beyond"' in
1971.
Virtually every person has "Thought Outside the Box" at one point in their lives or
another . . . I
can remember, about four years ago when my parents were re-modelling the upstairs, where
my
bedroom was located. My father was trying to figure out some way to convert three
bedrooms
into two, while keeping a nice square landing that is right outside the doors. Well with
the way
that the upstairs was shaped there was much difficulty. Finally one day, I was sick of
seeing my
father stressing out over something like that. So I took a pencil and a piece of paper
and I drew
the outline of the upstairs. Then rather than drawing a straight line right across the
middle of
where the bedrooms would be I drew a diagonal like that still left space for closets and
when it
angled down back towards the stairs (the wall). This allowed my dad to have the nice
even
square landing right out side the bedroom doors... I was very proud of myself, and I now
have
the honour of saying that I designed my bedroom... can you guess who's room was larger?
I
guess what I am trying to say is that all a person has to do is apply themselves and they
will have
the ability to "Think Outside the Box." It isn't something that is extremely easy to do.
It is like
most things in a person's life, they must practice and learn. Some people don't even
realize it
when they are doing it, which is great. But if only they could recognise this ability,
apply it to
something, and improve life for all!