Have you ever thought about your thinking and what you know? On a very simplified
level, you could say that everything you know came to you through your senses.
You see, hear, and touch things of your choosing and you can also smell and
taste things in your surroundings. Information is gathered and sent to your
brain by your sense organs. Somehow, your brain processes all this information
in an attempt to find order and make sense of it all. Finding order helps you
understand the world and what may be happening at a particular place and time.
Finding order also helps you predict what may happen next, which can be very
important in a lot of situations. This is a book on thinking about and understanding your physical surroundings.
These surroundings range from the obvious, such as the landscape and the day-to-day
weather, to the not so obvious, such as how atoms are put together. Your physical
surroundings include natural things as well as things that people have made
and used (Figure 1.1). You will learn how to think about your surroundings,
whatever your previous experience with thought-demanding situations. This first
chapter is about "tools and rules" that you will use in the thinking
process. |
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education