Why do I want to fit Principles into SCAMPER approaches? In a recent post (check it here first) I explore how SCAMPER can embrace the 40 Principles of Inventive Problem Solving. The goal is to wrap the complexity of the Principles in the approachability of SCAMPER. Rearrange defined in Applied Imagination Under the category of…
This anecdote comes courtesy of the CBC Radio show Under The Influence, the podcast of which my son and I listened to in the car during our road trip to Ottawa. Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock you have heard the McDonald’s jingle that ends, “I’m Lovin’ It”. I am as close as…
I spent Easter weekend in Ottawa and just returned to Toronto. My mother, being British, is a fan of the The Great British Baking Show. One trick piece of kitchen hardware jumped out at me: the oven they were using had a retractable door. I did a little research and found a video on it…
Silverado frame rails General Motors uses hydroforming to produce frame rails for its vehicles including the Silverado pickup and the aluminum pieces found in the Corvette. This process makes stronger, lighter and to more accurate dimensions than typical welded multi-piece components. In tube hydroforming, pressure is applied with hydraulic fluid inside a tube that is…
Early aerodynamic testing Before the advent of the wind tunnel, experimenters would use a whirling arm to measure drag and lift on models. The weakness of this approach was that the model would be travelling in its own wake. In 1901, the Wright brothers tested their aircraft design in a rudimentary wooden tunnel with a…
Disposable Montreal’s “Big O” stadium built for the 1976 Olympic games stands as an object lesson for cities that are contemplating spending billions of dollars on their Olympic dreams. The Montreal stadium costs taxpayers over $30 million to maintain every year and yet the cost to tear it down would be prohibitive, no less than…
E-Fan X All-electric airplanes are already in service in limited applications like trainers and for towing gliders. These small planes boast low energy use and low maintenance, but battery capacity and weight remain limiting factors for longer range aircraft. Airbus, Rolls Royce and Siemens are thus employing the same strategy used by automobile manufacturers before…
In a conventional engine design, coolant first enters the block and then the head. The result is that the coolant is already quite hot by the time it reaches the head. In 1992, Chevrolet introduced the C4 Corvette along with its then revolutionary V8 engine that featured a “reverse cooling” system. This routed coolant first…
“With enough butter, anything is good.” Julia Child Pictured is a butter bell, a French crock which originated in the 19th century which keeps butter fresh at room temperature and spreadable. The crock (in the foreground) is packed with a stick of butter and then inverted (Principle 13 – The Other Way Round) into the…
The problem As I described in an earlier post, some elementary students in Ontario were suspended for incomplete immunization records. This series of posts is an effort to come up with ideas using each of the 40 Principles. Remember the cardinal rule: there are no stupid ideas, only ideas that may serve to inspire the…