I came accross a very interesting story the other day that I wanted to share with you. It's a story from Alexander Calandra called the Barometer Story. For those of you that have read some of my other posts (here or other forums), You know I like to keep things Simple and Fresh. This story is an intersting way on how to throw creativity on top of that.

Most of us sell / advertise in a similar way. Albeit, print, radio, TV, social, Low price leader, Give away the funny money, etc. This story encourages you to achieve the same goal by doing things differently (maybe a little or a lot). The way you do the task may be easier, harder, or about the same, but in the end you get the correct answer (Good results).

I hope this story motivates you as it did me. When faced with a dilemma (Sales, rough month, advertising strategy, etc), push yourself to think outside of the box! Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, It's that simple. I especially like the last answer that was given. 

So I ask, How Do You Measure the Height of a Building With a Barometer?

"The Barometer Story" by Alexander Calandra:

Some time ago I received a call from a colleague who asked if I would be the referee on the grading of an examination question. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed he should receive a perfect score and would if the system were not set up against the student. The instructor and the student agreed to submit this to an impartial arbiter, and I was selected.

I went to my colleague's office and read the examination question, "Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer."

The student had answered, "Take a barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower the barometer to the street and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."

I gave the student six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. I asked if he wished to give up, but he said no. He had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. I excused myself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on. In the next minute he dashed off his answer which read, "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop that barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then using the formula S = ½at², calculate the height of the building."

At this point I asked my colleague if he would give up. He conceded, and I gave the student almost full credit.

In leaving my colleague's office, I recalled that the student had said he had many other answers to the problem, so I asked him what they were. "Oh yes," said the student. "There are a great many ways of getting the height of a tall building with a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer and the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building and by the use of a simple proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," I asked. "And the others?"

"Yes," said the student." There is a very basic measurement method that you will like. In this method you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units. A very direct method."

"Of course, if you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of 'g' at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference of the two values of 'g' the height of the building can be calculated."

Finally, he concluded, there are many other ways of solving the problem. "Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows, 'Mr. Superintendent, here I have a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of this building, I will give you this barometer.'"

At this point I asked the student if he really did know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think, using the "scientific method"

Nick Domino