Mak D.K., Mak A.T., Mak A.B. Solving Everyday Problems with the Scientific Method: Thinking Like a Scientist

Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company, 2016. — 348 p.This book describes how one can use The Scientific Method to solve everyday problems including medical ailments, health issues, money management, traveling, shopping, cooking, household chores, etc. It illustrates how to exploit the information collected from our five senses, how to solve problems when no information is available for the present problem situation, how to increase our chances of success by redefining a problem, and how to extrapolate our capabilities by seeing a relationship among heretofore unrelated concepts.
One should formulate a hypothesis as early as possible in order to have a sense of direction regarding which path to follow. Occasionally, by making wild conjectures, creative solutions can transpire. However, hypotheses need to be well-tested. Through this way, The Scientific Method can help readers solve problems in both familiar and unfamiliar situations. Containing real-life examples of how various problems are solved — for instance, how some observant patients cure their own illnesses when medical experts have failed — this book will train readers to observe what others may have missed and conceive what others may not have contemplated. With practice, they will be able to solve more problems than they could previously imagine.
In this second edition, the authors have added some more theories which they hope can help in solving everyday problems. At the same time, they have updated the book by including quite a few examples which they think are interesting.
Readership: General public interested in self-help books; undergraduates majoring in education and behavioral psychology; graduates and researchers with research interests in problem solving, creativity and scientific research methodology.Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Prelude
The Scientific Method
Edwin Smith papyrus
Greek philosophy (th century BC)
Islamic philosophy (th century AD – th century AD)
European Science (th century AD – th century AD
Scientific Revolution ( AD – th century AD)
Humanism and Empiricism
The Scientific Method
Application of the Scientific Method to Everyday Problem
Observation
External information
Missed information
Misinformation
Hidden information
No information
Unaware information
Evidence-based information
Internal information
(A) Emotional
Self-denied information
Biased information(B) Unemotional
Unexploited information
Peripheral information
Hypothesis
Abduction
Explain the past and present; predict the future
Albert Einstein
Experiment
Experiment versus hypothesis
Platonic, Aristotelian, Baconian and Galilean methodology
Recognition
John Nash
Problem Situation and Problem definition
Perspectives on different levels
Perspectives on the same level
Induction and Deduction
Induction
Deduction
Reductio ad absurdum
Alternative Solutions
Brainstorming
Operations research and management science
Lotion bottle with a pump dispenser
Relation
Creativity
Ordinary thinking
Creative thinking
Knowledge
Insight
Unconscious mind
Double Helix
Genetic material
Watson and Crick at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge
Rosalind Franklin at King's College, London
The triple helix model
The double helix model
Creative thinking and ordinary thinking
Scientific Research and Scientific Method
Can we be more creative?
Mathematics
Fermi problems
Probable value
Epilogue