Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Problems ... the opportunity for solutions
It's often common usage today to refer to "problems" as something negative, annoying, burdensome, even agonizing at times. People speak of problems at work, or problems with their children or their marriage, or health problems. Yet, inherently, the word problem can also suggest something quite positive: a solution.
In mathematics, one tackles a problem both looking for and expecting a solution. What kind of a mathematician would someone be who simply threw his hands up (or threw down his pencil, or shut off the computer) every time he was presented with a problem! His very work is oriented toward solving problems, not running or hiding from them, or hoping they will go away. In fact, one dictionary defines problem not only as "a question proposed for solution" but also, in mathematics, as "anything that is required to be done." The mathematician welcomes opportunities to prove what he has learned, or even to chart new territory in unexplored areas of his particular field.

January 11, 1993 issue
View Issue-
FROM THE EDITORS
The Editors
-
Single but part of a full family circle
Written for the Sentinel
-
Meeting the demand for courage
Tony Lobl
-
Effective prayer
Tazuila Emery
-
Second Thought
"Full silence" by Fenella Bennetts
-
"The curse causeless"
Beverly Bemis Hawks DeWindt
-
Problems ... the opportunity for solutions
William E. Moody
-
His mother love
Mary Metzner Trammell
-
An opportunity
The Editors
-
Christian Science helps you
Amanda Knox
-
I have found healing ideas and encouragement from the testimonies...
Helen McKee Sengebush
-
Listening to our young son talking to himself in the next...
Ardath Ann Hamann with contributions from Nicholas P. Drozdoff
-
In my youth, a Christian Science practitioner often came to...
Elizabeth Rohn with contributions from Morey R. Zuber