FREE ESSAY ON 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!