Chapter 1, Section 4

Chapter 1, Section 4

Skills Used in Solving Problems

Problem solving is a skill you use all the time. You are in a supermarket. Do you buy a name brand or the store brand of peanut butter? Do you buy the 1-liter bottle or the 2-liter bottle of a carbonated beverage? Do you choose the express line if there are five customers ahead of you or the non-express line with a single shopper who has lots of items?

When you solve a problem you may have a data table, a graph, or another type of visual to refer to. The shopper in Figure 1.23 is reading the label on a can while trying to decide whether to buy the item. She may need to avoid certain ingredients because of a food allergy. Or she may want to know the amount of Calories per serving.

Figure 1.23 A shopper must make many decisions. Some of those decisions are based on data, like the information on a food label.

The skills you use to solve a word problem in chemistry are not that different from those you use while shopping or cooking or planning a party. Effective problem solving always involves developing a plan and then implementing that plan.