Gather information
about the problem. Read it carefully, looking for any key phrases
like "at rest" or "with constant velocity."
Recall any common sense ideas you might have about reasonable
values, etc. (A car wouldn't have a speed of 500 mph, for example.)
Can you make an educated guess at what the answer might look like,
even to within an order of magnitude?
Organize the information. You might
want to make a sketch and label different events. Certain problems
will require specific graphical approaches (e.g. free body diagrams).
Prepare a table listing exactly what information is given and
what is being asked for. Classify the problem: Is it an energy
conservation problem? Does it look like Newton's Laws would apply?
Analyze the problem. Determine what
equation to use and solve it for the unknown. (Note: it may be
necessary to break the problem down into sub-problems. You might
have to calculate an intermediate value which you can then use
in a second equation to arrive at the final answer to the original
problem.) After completing the necessary algebra and/or calculus,
substitute the known values which you organized previously. Draw
a box around the final result to make it easy to find.
Learn from your efforts. Go back
and see if your results fit your original ideas about what would
"make sense." Think about why you were assigned this
particular problem. How is it similar to other problems you've
seen? How is it different? Is there one special step that seems
to hold the key to solving it?
University
of Pittsburgh