Innovative Thinking - Concise Reader

Author: Xu Guangming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: △ Life lies in movement, which is rhythmic, alternating between tension and relaxation. Anything that operates continuously will eventually wear out: As the saying goes, "Dripping water penetrates stone, not because of its force, but because of its persistence." The philosophy it conveys is profoundly deep, no matter from which angle it is understood. Everyone knows that if a guitar string is pulled too tight, it will break; even cables spanning rivers and bridges cannot be made perfectly straight—truly straightening them would cause them to snap; high-strength mechanical parts/components, even with regular lubrication, will eventually wear out and fail due to friction after prolonged operation. In 1903, the Wright brothers invented the airplane. It wasn't until the 1950s, when the British Comet jetliner suffered major catastrophic accidents, that people realized airplanes could also "tire out"—leading to the scientific community paying attention to fatigue and fracture design in aircraft. Fatigue refers to the process of crack formation and propagation (stable and unstable) in a structure under cyclic loading. The human brain, as a material, cannot match the strength of stone, guitar strings, cables, metal components, or airplanes. As part of the human body, it shares the same fatigue issues as physical exertion—precisely for this reason, breaks are scheduled between classes from primary school to university, even for graduate and doctoral students, allowing both attentive listeners and dedicated instructors to rest. Many research institutions and government agencies also allocate time for work breaks to improve efficiency. P259