FAQ
Need a Problem
Need a Problem is the address for happy people leading a carefree life. In order that life doesn’t become too boring and monotone, needaproblem.com provides the necessary contrasts – i.e. real problems to solve.
Prices
Subject to grade of difficulty, problems are available for USD ($) 1.-, 5.-, 50.-, 500.- und 5000.-
Satisfaction guaranteed
All the problems have been chosen with the utmost care. Therefore we are convinced that all the problems we offer are worth their price. Should you think otherwise, we ask you to please tell us so in writing: Need a Problem, Seidenweg 3, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. We shall send you a new problem by return.
Donation
We donate one percent of our profit to people who are not blessed with luck and a carefree life. As soon as we have a sizeable amount on hand, we shall present the charitable institution on needaproblem.
Range of delivery
The geographical area for the delivery of our problems is presently restricted to our planet, since qe are not sure if on other planets, there also exist living beings suffering from boredom.
Delivery time
The problems will be delivered within 48 hours.
Mode of payment
You can pay your orders with any of the credit cards currently in use worldwide. To protect your credit card data, they are transferred to PayPal in encoded form.
Exchange
The problems can neither be exchanged nor refunded. Thus, we provide you with another problem free of charge.
How does it all work?
In order not to mar the surprise effect, we of course do not wish to disclose too much. From the technical point of view, however, the procedure is as follows: After you have ordered a problem, you get an e-mail from needaproblem.com with a link specially generated for you (the e-mail is sent to the address indicated to PayPal. If you click on it, you are directly led to your personal problem, i.e. setting of task. As soon as you have solved the problem, you send us the proof thereof to the e-mail address indicated.
Data protection and data safety
Needaproblem commits itself to respect the general provisions of data protection and data safety. Tue data entered by you are treated with the utmost confidentiality. Needaproblem does not forward them to third parties.
Place of jurisdiction
Our business activity and thus the relations between customer and needaproblem are exclusively based on Swiss law. Place of jurisdiction is Bern. For customers with place of residence, resp. place of business outside of Switzerland, Bern is the exclusive place of collection as well as the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all legal proceedings.
Problem
A task whose solution is creating difficulties, is considered a problem. Problems are obstacles that must be surmounted or circumvented in order to get away from an unsatisfactory starting situation and reach a satisfactory target situation. Problems arise in the most varying form in all fields of life and sciences. To solve a problem, it can be practical to break it up into more manageable sub-tasks, or to put it down to an already solved problem, or to view the starting situation from a very unusual angle.
From daily experience with problems, numerous scientists have worked out criteria according to which problems can be characterized. Individual problems can thus be grouped together in classes of problems. The similarity of problems of one class makes it likely that the methods for solving them are equally suitable for all of them.
Difficulty
The paramount criterion of a problem is its difficulty, whose grade can possibly range from trivial (solvable at first glance) via simple and difficult until unsolvable. The grade of difficulty, however, is mostly the most vague and the least helpful feature of a problem, since the perception of difficulty depends on the respective problem solver and the resources at his/her disposal. Errors in the perception of difficulty can obscure the view on the background and the real facts. The appraisal of the difficulty of a problem is normally only significant and accurate after the characteristics described below have been thoroughly assessed.
Solvability
Not all the problems can be solved. With many problems, the apparent unsolvability is due to incomplete definition of the problem, meaning that starting situation, obstacle and target situation are not defined sufficiently clearly to enable a solution. Yet even with accurately formulated problems in environments of clearly set rules, it can perhaps be shown that a task is unsolvable. To expend time and energy into the solving of problems whose unsolvability is proven is not clever. In such a case, a workaround of the problem can help, meaning that the targeted goal is altered in such a manner that the problem ceases to exist. The unsolvability of a problem can perhaps be ascribed to the fact that one tries to reach several goals that are in conflict with each other, at the same time. In this case we are faced with a conflict of interests that possibly can be ironed out with a compromise. In technical environments, this can also take the form of an optimization. However, compromise solutions can by themselves create new problems. The case where, based on the pertinent system of regulations a compromise is not possible, is referred to as Aporia.
Well-defined
Problems that seem to be overly difficult perhaps are just not sufficiently well defined. A problem is well defined if the starting situation is accurately described and if the reaching of the target can be proven by measurement. As the case may be, even the method for the solving can be prescribed. The clearer a problem is described, the simpler it will generally be to solve it, because all the information items needed for solving the problem, are given. To bring a problem into a well-defined status can, however, be difficult or even.
Divisibility
Can a problem be broken up into several sub-problems, it is referred to as divisible or also hierarchic. Genuine sub-problems are easier to solve, need less expenditure of work, can offer a more compact and more tangible description of the starting situation which already by itself suggests a path towards a solution. If the breaking-up itself presents a difficult problem, or if a problem cannot be subdivided at all, or if the sub-problems, whichever way the division is made, are as complex as the master problem, then it is referred to as not divisible or elementary. A special statement concerning the divisibility comes to the distinction between problems of discernment and problems of transformation. Problems of discernment are undivisible problems because they need only one undivisible transformation step which is very difficult because it calls for a completely new perception of things. Problems of transformation, however, can be broken up into a whole range of transformation steps that must be correctly harmonized with each other.
Similarity
By their nature, many problems are so closely related to each other that the solution of one problem solves another one at the same time. In this case, the starting and target situations of both are identical, albeit completely differently formulated in most instances. One of the problems can conveniently be transferred to the other. Specially the complexity theory speaks in such cases of one problem being reduced to another. In this manner, whole classes of unsolved problems can be identified of which it is known that the solving of one problem takes care of all the others of that class. If a problem cannot be derived from another, then it is a problem class of its own and possibly requires a completely new insight.
Magnitude of expenditure of work, energy and time
rrespective of difficulty, problems can be judged by the expenditure of work needed to solve them. The path towards the solution may be short in one instance, in the other the expenditure of work may be so great that the target to be reachd is not worth the trouble. Extremely demanding problems may even require virtually unlimited paths towards a solution. Although a problem may theoretically be solvable, but continue to be considered unsolvable. The amount of expenditure needed to solve a problem depends on the complexity, and on the capability of the persons involved. The term capability stands here for diverse factors, from a person’s intelligence until computer capacity. Also varying starting situations have an impact on the magnitude of the expenditure of work to find a solution, since the availability of raw materials and tools, or simply another kind of knowledge on which to build, are variable.
Subjectivity
Specially everyday problems are subject to the subjectivity of the persons concerned. Varying conceptions in regard to targets bring about that the difficulty and the expenditure of work are judged differently by different people. For persons who are personally involved, certain problems for them are unsolvable, for outsiders, however, they are to be managed or even simple, as for instance the determination of the time of one’s own death. Sometimes, the change of one’s own point of view produces a better understanding for the problem, as when emotions are involved and the problem can only be understood at all via intuitive power.
Sources: needaproblem and Wikipedia
