Michael, a first-year nursing student, has a medical terminology exam and a biology paper due tomorrow. He has been studying medical terminology all week and he has written much of the paper. In fact, the biology paper is almost finished. Michael figures that he has 4, maybe 5 more hours to work on it. He has just arrived in the library with his book bag. In the book bag he has his laptop computer, his biology textbook, his medical terminology textbook, his note cards and his notebooks. If he finishes his biology paper he will not have enough time to study for his medical terminology exam. If he studies for medical terminology he will not have enough time to write his biology paper.

The library is crowded. After 15 minutes of looking around the library Michael cannot find an open seat at any of the tables or cubicles. The school has just over 7000 students and it seems to Michael that at least 6999 of them are already there in the library.

After another 10 minutes of looking, Michael decides to go back to his room. His room is cramped, cluttered and crowded. Still he figures that if he stays up all night he might have enough time to finish the biology paper and study for his medical terminology exam. It’s going to be a long, long night.