What is Mystery: Definition and 912 Discussions

Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.
Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, whose titles such as Dime Mystery, Thrilling Mystery and Spicy Mystery offered what were then described as complicated to solve and weird stories: supernatural horror in the vein of Grand Guignol. That contrasted with parallel titles of the same names which contained conventional hardboiled crime fiction. The first use of "mystery" in that sense was by Dime Mystery, which started out as an ordinary crime fiction magazine but switched to "weird menace" during the later part of 1933.

View More On Wikipedia.org
Recent contents Top users
  1. Ivan Seeking

    Hubble mystery light puzzles astronomers

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28622042/
  2. stevebd1

    Hubble Mystery Light Puzzles Astronomers

    Irene Klotz, Discovery News, 12th Jan 09- http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/12/strange-light-hubble.html and from the Hubble site- http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/04/
  3. T

    The Mystery of Computer Parts Doubling in 18 Months

    how come some computer parts double they're power once in like 18 months or so? it's kind of weird...alwais +100% and in 18 months or so...for example take the RAM memory...they came like this(in MB): 8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096,8192! I didn't cheked,but the 16 GB RAM stick might be...
  4. R

    Mystery Roar from Faraway Space detected

    Just found this article...thought you guys may want to check it out. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090107-aas-loud-cosmic-noise.html
  5. R

    Unlock the Mystery of Nikola Tesla's Ability to Run a Car

    Hello to all! I have but 1 simple question: Has the secret of Nikola Tesla's ability to run a car on power from "the ethos" ever been revealed? Was it a permanent magnet motor the didn't need an external power source? I can see all the skeptics eyebrows being raised as we speak regarding...
  6. Q

    Unsolved Historical Mystery: Greek Astronomer's Mysterious Observations

    Hi all :D, I was wondering if someone could help me. My physics teacher once told me about this unsolved mystery - and I have a vague memory of it. I was hoping someone could help me find out what it is. Basically it was something to do with astronomy and about a Greek astronomer. I...
  7. H

    Equation with 3 Inflection Points & Local Extrema | Help Needed!

    Homework Statement The following five points lie on a function: (1,20) (2,4) (5,3) (6,2) (10,1) Find an equation that passes through these points and has these features: a. There are three inflection points b. There is at least one local maximum c. there is at least one local...
  8. T

    The Mystery of Earth's Opposing Tide

    What is the explanation for the tide on the surface of the Earth opposite the moon?
  9. F

    Solving the Heat Transfer Mystery: My Numbers Not Equally Out?

    Can anybody explain why my numbers are not equally out? At work, I am trying to determine the heat transfer taking place in a water cabinet. Both loops have water in them. There is a counter current flow heat exchanger where the transfer takes place. I take the temperature measurements...
  10. L

    Solving the Mystery of Car Fog - Explaining the Science

    I don't understand what really is happening. When there is fog on the (inside)windshield of my car, I turn on the AC and it goes away. Are the water droplets freezing? Am I changing the dew point? Why does it go away? If I leave the temperature at 62F, the fog increases. Can somebody...
  11. wolram

    My Kitchen Reflection Mystery: Bikes, Jumpers, and a Ghostly Shape

    My kitchen window looks into an (out house) the out house is where i keep my bikes so it is securely locked. So at night i am cooking a meal and see my reflection in the window just as clear as in a mirror. I am wearing a stripey jumper which also shows clearly in the reflection, as i move...
  12. S

    Medical Bringing Back Life: The Mystery of Natural Death

    If someone dies in a hospital a member of medical staff tries to brings their heart back to life, sometimes this works. Why if someone dies of nateral causes can't their heart be braught back to life after a while?
  13. wolram

    My Mystery Smoke Filled Kitchen

    I was going to have baked potatoes for lunch so i put them in the oven on high, half an hour later the houses filled with smoke, it is still lingering now, what ever had spilled over in the oven previously must have burnt and burnt and burnt, strange as the last thing i baked did not cause any...
  14. M

    Exploring the Mystery of Chlorine's Half-AMU Mass

    I was looking at my periodic table in Chemistry today and noticed that Chlorine's relative mass was 35.5, how can it have half an amu when it has 17 electrons? That's not 0.5amu, is it?
  15. matthyaouw

    Unraveling a Mysterious Hut: A Puzzling Discovery in the Wilderness

    I was out for a wander yesterday when I stumbled across a little run-down hut with 3 walls and no door. Inside was a table, 3 chairs, remnants of some candles and a pile of poppy seed heads. Written in pencil all over the table was some notation. It was mainly numbers set out in rows, arranged...
  16. Danger

    Honda's Bizarre V4 Concept Bike: Can You Solve the Mystery?

    I love Gizmag, and they've presented a challenge. (Actually, Honda presented it; Gizmag is passing it on.) The link shows a Honda concept bike that appears to have no tires, suspension, or drive train. I can think of a few ways that the suspension, steering, and power system might be done...
  17. DaveC426913

    Solving the Mystery of My Itchy Bites

    I'm trying to figure out where I'm getting these bites from. Skeets or fleas or whatever. I've got about six bites in the soft crook behind my left knee. None behind the right knee. They are very itchy. They have been occurring over at least a week or more. Still occurring, in fact. I've...
  18. H

    Kinetic Friction & Accelerating Crate: Unraveling the Mystery

    1. Why does a crate on an accelerating truck accelerate backwards proportional to the amount of kinetic friction? I don't understand why the crate accelerates backwards as if kinetic friction was the only force acting on it. 2. Homework Equations : F=ma
  19. E

    Engineering AC circuit, mystery impedance

    Homework Statement http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/1867/es100wi8.th.png http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php a) Write an expression for V1 and V2 both in time domain and phasor domain (Solved) b) Write an expression for the current I both in time domain and phasor domain (Solved) c) Calculate...
  20. U

    Unlocking the Mystery of Ball Bearing: Height, Velocity and Position

    The question states: Ball bearing are made by letting spherical drops of molten metal fall inside a tall tower, and they solidify as they fall. a) If a bearing needs 4.0s to solidify, how high must the tower be? b) What is the bearing velocity when it reaches the bottom? c) What...
  21. G

    Mystery of Magnetic Flux: Example 6.2 Revealed

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/gsan_bot/magnetic1.jpg" Refer to example 6.2 shown in the picture, the magnetic flux = -1.2t and the deriative time of magnetic flux should be -1.2, thus, the flux is decreasing and the direction of the induced current should be reverse. but why it say...
  22. madmike159

    Unraveling the Mystery of [Topic]: Implications of [Effect]

    After doing some research on the subject I have managed to work out roughly how it works. What I havn't been able to find out is what it does. Were there any implications from this effect? Did it lead to disproving or proving a theory? Any help would be very usful.
  23. G

    Solving the Mystery of Directional Sound: A 19cm Challenge

    The brain can sense the direction of a sound source by noting how much earlier a sound is heard in one ear than in the other. Model your ears as two sensors 19.0 cm apart. If a click from a distant source is heard 210 x 10^-6 s earlier in the left ear than in the right, from what direction...
  24. Z

    Comparing Two Stones: Solving the Mystery of Height and Time

    I've been kicking myself in the head all day trying to figure this one out. I'm completely bewildered.:uhh: Please help meeee! A stone is thrown vertically upward at a speed of 43.00 m/s at time t=0. A second stone is thrown upward with the same speed 2.250 seconds later. At what time are...
  25. Ivan Seeking

    What is the Mysterious Paulding Light in Michigan?

    http://www.wluctv6.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=185121 Video http://www.wluctv6.com/news/video.aspx?id=185121 They say that these lights have been observed for 40 years.
  26. L

    The Mystery of a 1000 Times Increase in Weight: Exploring the Physics Behind It

    not able to pick up a 1 kg iron object off the ground by overcoming the gravitational force between Earth and the object. Consider this : It can pick up a 1 gram (iron) object easily. Then, the increase (from 1gm to 1 kg) would be by a 1000 times. Clearly that increase cannot account for the...
  27. B

    Solve the Post Bean-Counting Scandal Mystery

    Help me out please, a friend sent this to me and I can't seem to figure it out. Thanks! "Congresswoman Smith opened the Post and saw that a bean-counting scandal had been leaked to the press. Outraged, Smith immediately called an emergency meeting with the five other members of the Special...
  28. E

    Unravelling the Mystery of Poles and Residues

    I still don't quite fully understand about the order of poles and calculating residues. Take f(z) = 1/sin z at z=0 for example. When I try putting that into Laurent expansion about z=0, 1/ sin z = 2i/ (e^z - e^(-z)) = 2ie^(-z) / ( 1 - e^(-2z)) = 2ie^(-z) [ 1 - e^(-2z) + e^(-4z) - e^(-6z) +...
  29. F

    Why is My Dell Inspiron 1525 Laptop Using More Hard Drive Space Than Expected?

    Hello all. I have a dell inspiron 1525 laptop, and I've had it for about 4 months. I've been downloading music here and there, but nothing too major. Earlier this week I realized that my computer had used about 70gb of memory, and I had no idea where it was. So I downloaded a disk analyzer...
  30. D

    Exploring the Mystery of Iron & Nickel in Earth's Core

    I'm curious as to why there aren't heavier metals in the Earth's core than iron and nickel. Why those two? Anyone have any insight?
  31. Greg Bernhardt

    Is It a Turtle or a Monster? The Mystery Unfolds

    Is it a turtle or a monster?? :) http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-lijoy0801,0,5138315.column
  32. wolram

    Typing Superhumans: The Mystery Unveiled

    Who are you people that can type fast, where the heck did you learn this skill, it seems that there are people out there that can type with more than one finger, what the hey are you people mutants?
  33. P

    The Mystery of Photons and Gravity

    I've learned that photons have no mass, so why they are still influenced by black holes or other large celestial bodies?
  34. D

    Axiom of Choice: Unveiling the Mystery Behind Unsolvable Problems

    Can someone give me a list of problems which at first sight require the axiom of choice, but do not?
  35. C

    Unravelling the Mystery of Free Energy

    free energy?? water disasotiates to H+ and 0H- if you could take the dissasociated ions away, and combine them how much energy could you get out? In the liquid remaining, more would dissosciate, and the process could be continued. Where does this energy come from - it sounds like free...
  36. Phrak

    Mystery IC 576002-3: Two-Wire Digital Transmitter Datasheet Search

    I'm searching for a datasheet. This IC device is a two-wire, differental, digital transmitter. Each leg has three output states (hi, lo, gnd). The otputs are differential and trapizoidal in shape. The logo on the chip is a solid white triangle with the point upward. And a Google search...
  37. S

    Exploring the Mystery of Particle Mass: The 3 Pions

    The 3 pions have different masses and we say this so because of the electro magnetic energy.if this is so then we can never measure a mass because the magnitude of the EM energy that a particle receives depends on the charged particles around it. if you help with this dilemma i would be grateful.
  38. C

    A Mathematical Mystery Revealed

    A very interesting article for all. http://www.math.utah.edu/~palais/pi.html Quote from the article: "What really worries me is that the first thing we broadcast to the cosmos to demonstrate our 'intelligence' is 3.14... I am a bit concerned about what the lifeforms who receive it will do...
  39. P

    Mystery of the "Cosmic Blank Spot": A Billion Light Year Void

    Recently, a rather large nothing was discovered in the Universe (last August by the University of Minnesota team). This cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no black holes, not even dark matter, and is a billion light years across. Is there a possibility that this could be the result of a...
  40. Ed Aboud

    The Mystery of the Endless Decimals: Can .9 Recurring Equal 1?

    Hi all. I can't remember where I saw this but it really confuses me. If x = .999999999... 10x = 9.9999999... 10x - x = 9x x = 1? So does that mean if that .9 recurring is 1 exactly? Thanks for any help.
  41. M

    Quantum Wave Function: Dependency & Increment Mystery

    Hi everyone, Can anybody solve my simple problems of quantum: Usually we say, that wave function Ψ is dependent on r,θ,Φ .But this is just a coordinate system,or more than that. Imagination to this is qite difficult. Moreover somewhere in a book I have read that if Ψ = f(r,θ) exp(imΦ),then on...
  42. M

    Exploring the Mystery of Light Bulb Blowing

    Homework Statement We did an experiment in class abvout resistance and temperature. The teacher told us to find out why light bulbs usually blow when you turn on the light. It must be related to the experiment we did which was seeing how resistance changed with temperature Homework...
  43. C

    Solving a Physics Puzzle: Unraveling the Mystery of Iron-56

    i got a atronphysics question that i have a hard time to solve it: In the most massive stars, nuclear fusion continues until iron-56 is formed in the core. consider the net process, which is to take 56 hydrogen atoms and turn them into one iron atom. a, how much enegry is released per atom...
  44. P

    Troubleshooting Home-Made Hofmann Apparatus for Electrolysis

    Hi, i recently constructed a hofmann apparatus at home out of pvc and had some trouble with it. Basically, once it is set up, i only get gas from one electrode, the other does nothing. H2SO4 is used as the electrolyte, and the is 12 volts at 4 amps being put through it, DC. are there any simple...
  45. D

    Unraveling the Mystery of Concave Mirrors: Understanding Inverted Virtual Images

    ok my doubt is wen i look at a concave mirror(behind focus of mirror) i can see image of my face inverted inside the mirror,,,why does this hapen?? acc to mirror laws i shud get a real image tht too not inside the mirror but outside it! y do i observe an inverted virtual image in case of...
  46. snoopies622

    The Mystery of Red & Green Light Combinations

    Red light mixed with green light produces yellow light. Yet, a red photon and a green photon don't combine to make a yellow photon (or two of them). Can someone explain this?
  47. T

    Unveiling the Mystery of Crystal Babies

    Hi there, this is my first ever post in PF. Have you heard of crystal babies? They have been very popular among Taiwan students. And I have googled some information and some people said they consisted of "arcrylate polymers". They also said they are similar to Magic/Crystal Soil. Would...
  48. N

    I would love to hear your thoughts on this intriguing topic!

    0.999... = 1 ?? Hey, I was just reading about this and thought it was interesting. Apparently, from what I have read, 0.999... = 1 (where the 999... represent an infinite series of 9's) There were a few good arguments for this 'fact' and also a few arguments against it... What I...
  49. Astronuc

    Unravelling the Mystery of the Huns

    The origin of the Huns is a mystery and subject of much debate. They originated in the Steppes of Central Asia as did other groups. There is evidence that they are a Turkic or proto-Turkic group. The Chinese (Qin) referred to Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu), and some/many consider this an early reference...
  50. S

    Uncovering the Mystery of Thompson's Flying Ring

    Can anyone explain how flying ring works? like the demostration whith a magnetic coil connected to AC poer and an aluminum ring. the ring was placed on the top of the coil and althought aluminum is a non magnetic, the ring was thrown to the ceiling. can anyone tell me why there was force on...
Back
Top