Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+2 −2
Q&A How can a problem or puzzle be analogized as a knot?

An ESL student was asking about the quotation below at my school, but I don't know how to expound or simplify to her that "A problem or puzzle can be thought of as a knot." Any ideas? She knows wha...

1 answer  ·  posted 3y ago by PSTH‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by Jordan‭

Question semantics
#1: Initial revision by user avatar PSTH‭ · 2020-12-11T03:53:35Z (over 3 years ago)
How can a problem or puzzle be analogized as a knot? 
An ESL student was asking about [the quotation below](https://membean.com/wrotds/solv-loosen) at my school, but I don't know how to expound or simplify to her that "A problem or puzzle can be thought of as a knot." Any ideas? She knows what a knot is, but somehow she can't connect the dots between a knot and a problem. 


> The Latin roots **solv** and its variant **solut** both mean “loosen.” Let’s ab**solut**ely re**solv**e these roots right now in a re**solut**e fashion!
> 
> Let’s begin with the root **solv**, which means “loosen.” A problem or puzzle can be thought of as a knot. When you **solv**e a problem, you “loosen” or untie that knot. When you show re**solv**e in doing so, you are determined to “loosen” that knot no matter what. Once you re**solv**e or set the task to “loosen” the puzzle, you can ab**solv**e or “loosen” yourself from this responsibility by using willpower to complete it.