The Mysterious Rings

Last week Prasad Sir showed us a strange looking contraption hanging from the ceiling on the Teacher's Terrace, and we were supposed to identify the problem and then solve it.

A true manager is one who can not only solve the problem presented to him, but can also identify the problem that might not be so obvious, or even anticipate the problem before it comes into being.

I believe that is the main purpose of the MBA course I am pursuing at NITIE.

So, we were taken to the terrace and asked to look around and to everyone's surprise, people saw a hanging wooden toy from a distance.

A child might enjoy playing around with it, but Prasad Sir tries to find teaching in everything. So we were told there's a  hidden problem to be figured out.

Being a class of bright students, one of us quickly suggested that we try to take the ring off the toy.

And then the fun part began. People did try, got bored and went off. This was the case with me as well. But I went back later and solved it.

Here's how I did it. To remove the ring:

·                     Raise the ring as high as it would go and hold it there.

·                     Move one of the wooden squares to the other side by passing it through the slit in the top part.

·                     Bring both the squares together by moving the thread.

·                     One of the balls will still remain stuck after its square block is taken to other side.

·                     Lower the ring, tilt it and remove through the slit and the ball.

And to assemble the toy back:

·         Pass the ring through the slit back onto the square

                                     

·         Raise the ring as high as possible.

·         Pass one of the wooden squares through the slit and to its correct side.

So it can be said that it's not only important to be good at problem solving, but to be excellent at identifying the problem as well.