Problems to find / Problems to prove

» Glossary » Problems to find / Problems to solve
In How to solve it, George Pólya categorizes the problems in two kinds:

  • Problems to find: the goal is finding a certain object, the unknown.
  • Problems to probe: the goal is to show whether a certain assertion is true or false.

In the problems to find, we work with the unknown (what we want to get), some data, and conditions to be met.
In the problems to prove, we work with the conclusion (what we want to get) and the hypothesis.