science

Staples Easy Button

Staples Easy Button is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Staples Easy Button rather than just read about it. In short: The Staples Easy Button is an advertising campaign and push-button office toy by American office supply retailing company Staples. The button serves as "an almost magical ability for the retailer to solve all their shoppers' problems instantly".

Key takeaways

Staples Easy Button belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Staples Easy Button to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Staples Easy Button from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Staples Easy Button is an advertising campaign and push-button office toy by American office supply retailing company Staples. The button serves as "an almost magical ability for the retailer to solve all their shoppers' problems instantly".

History In January 2005, Staples Inc. began their "Easy Button" advertising campaign with "Easy Button Launch," a 30-second commercial that, due to receiving "such a tremendous response," led the company to show the commercial during Super Bowl XXXIX. The commercial features a series of people in tough situations pressing a red "Easy Button" to rescue them, closing with a narration: "Wouldn't it be nice if there was an easy button for life? Now there's one for your business. Staples. That was easy." Due to the popularity of the advertisements, Staples began selling physical replicas of the Easy Button in October 2005. The button had over one million units sold in less than a year.

Design The Staples Easy Button is a red plastic push-button device with the word "easy" printed white on the top. When pressed, it plays the audio phrase "That was easy".

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Staples Easy Button

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Staples Easy Button claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Staples Easy Button before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Staples Easy Button ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Staples Easy Button

In research: Staples Easy Button appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Staples Easy Button in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Staples Easy Button is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Advertising campaigns, Audio players, Electronic toys, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Staples Easy Button outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Staples Easy Button in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Staples Easy Button means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Staples Easy Button out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Staples Easy Button in simple terms?

Why does Staples Easy Button matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Staples Easy Button?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Staples Easy Button.