The world is a pretty complicated place. Just think about all the moving parts it takes to get sliced bread delivered, regularly, to your local grocery store and then apply that to every facet of life. However, there is nothing like a problem to really get human creativity going.
Someone asked “What complicated problem was solved by an amazingly simple solution?” and people from across the internet shared their favorite examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts in the comments down below.
#41
The British military couldn’t get their soldiers to take their doses of antimalarial. At the time, it was quinine mixed with water (and called tonic water). Quinine tastes incredibly bitter. So the soldiers kept getting sick or dying from malaria because they would not drink their daily tonic water. The simple solution was to give the soldiers a ration of gin, which alters the flavor of the quinine.
And thus, the gin and tonic cocktail was born.
And thus, the gin and tonic cocktail was born.
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-5points
#42
GPS receiver. Radio navigation, like Loran, was very complicated with hyperbolic curves intersections. To solve it digitally in the reciever back in 1980s would make a very expensive big powerhungry device. Even today it is a big problem.
Now the genius solution: just solve the problem using straight lines. Your calculation will be wrong, maybe by 100s of kilometer off course and useless. And then just do it again, using straight lines from your previous position. An surprisingly, after a few iterations your position converge and is accurate. And even better, this is how the receiver works in normal mode; calculate a new position every second or so. .
Now the genius solution: just solve the problem using straight lines. Your calculation will be wrong, maybe by 100s of kilometer off course and useless. And then just do it again, using straight lines from your previous position. An surprisingly, after a few iterations your position converge and is accurate. And even better, this is how the receiver works in normal mode; calculate a new position every second or so. .
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-18points
