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George Polya Was A Master of Problem Solving. His Most Popular Book Is "How To Solve It". Besides That, He Also Publishes "Mathematical Discovery"

George Polya was a Hungarian mathematician who immigrated to the United States in 1940 and made major contributions to problem solving. He authored the popular book "How to Solve It" which introduced four principles of problem solving: understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan, and look back. The book provides guidance on understanding word problems and choosing effective problem solving strategies.

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95 views2 pages

George Polya Was A Master of Problem Solving. His Most Popular Book Is "How To Solve It". Besides That, He Also Publishes "Mathematical Discovery"

George Polya was a Hungarian mathematician who immigrated to the United States in 1940 and made major contributions to problem solving. He authored the popular book "How to Solve It" which introduced four principles of problem solving: understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan, and look back. The book provides guidance on understanding word problems and choosing effective problem solving strategies.

Uploaded by

U.s. Maaran
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Introduction

George Polya is a Hungarian who immigrates to the United States in 1940. His major contribution is for his work in problem solving. He is born in 1887. His first job was to tutor Gregor the young son of a baron.

George Polya was a master of problem solving. His most popular book is How to Solve It. Besides that, he also publishes Mathematical Discovery, Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, volume 1 and Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning, volume 2.

In the book of How to Solve it, he introduces four principles. The First principle is understand the problem. Usually students do not understand their question, thats why they cannot solve it. However, George Polya taught teachers to ask students questions such as , Do you understand all the words used in stating the problem?, What are you asked to find or show?, Can you restate the problem in your own words? and etc.

Then, the second principle is devise a plan. You must choose your plan wisely in order to solve your question. There are various plans such as Guess and check, Make and orderly list, Eliminate possibilities, Use symmetry, Look for a pattern, Draw a picture and so on. Different strategies are use differently depends on their situations.

Third principle states that carry out the plan. In this, all you need is care and patience. Showing out your working steps can aid in the problem solving. Moreover, different steps can be used based on one problem solving strategies. Last but not least, forth principle is look back. In 1957, George Polya mentions that much can be gained by taking the time to reflect and look back at what you have done. This is to ensure whether your answer is correct based on the question given.

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