Hugonweb | Physics Education

General Problem Solving Strategy

1. Draw a picture or diagram of the situation. Draw multiple, if needed.
2. Write down known, desired, and other unknown variables.
3. Identify any principles or concepts at work. Examples:
   • Object in equilibrium
   • Steady-state system
   • Conservation of energy
4. Identify formulas that could help you get from known to desired variables. You may have to solve for unknown variables, i.e. a system of equations.
5. Compute the result
6. Is the result reasonable? A reasonable magnitude? A reasonable direction/sign? The correct units?

General Problem Solving Tips

• Pay special attention to vector directions and minus signs.
• Watch out for multi-valued results i.e. from inverse-trig functions or square roots.
• Does the problem need to be broken down into stages or parts?
• Dimensional analysis might give you an estimate or help you come up with an equation.

Educational GIFs, Images, Videos, etc.

Eureka cartoons about physics and simple machines

GIF on tangential velocity by Freya Holmer, retrieved from her twitter.