Inspiration

Inspiration comes in various forms and shapes. Newton's falling apple is one example. Of course, we have the story of Archimedes, who ran naked to the King after stumbling on the law of buoyancy in his bathtub.

Similarly, I am using a rainflow counting algorithm to count the number of stress reversals that occur as part of a lifetime of a structure (for irregular loading). The idea of rainflow counting is traced back to a Japanese researcher, who looked at rain drops falling on the roof of a Pagoda to come up with this algorithm. This then became, by far the most common technique in material science to estimate fatigue life.

Moral: The answers are in front of us. We just have to look carefully.