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.

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  1. M

    Mystery in the Sky: What is the Rainbow-Shaped Cloud?

    What IS this? Yesterday I was driving home from school when I saw that in the clouds there was what seemed to look like a portion of a rainbow :confused: :confused: I thought it was weird, so I took a picture of it while driving, with my cell phone, so it's not the best quality :redface...
  2. B

    The Mystery of Photon Motion: How Do Photons Perceive One Another?

    Hey, I understand GR pretty well and I realize how and why light is constant and appears constant from any frame of reference. My question is that even though nothing can reach light speed except a photon (or massless particle), how would other photons appear to them? In other words, from a...
  3. D

    Mystery Powder: Uncovering the Secret Behind Its Creation

    Ok so I mixed alum (aluminium potassium sulfate... I think), flower,and cornstarch in a 1:1:1 ratio, and put that in a covered pot and heated it till it produced no more smoke/fumes. This was an attempt to make a rapidly oxidizing powder in air. It was very blind science, I am sorry to say. It...
  4. S

    Is Water Really Blue? Explore the Mystery!

    SkyBlue=WaterBlue? No! Hey guys, I always thought that water is blue because it reflects the color of the sky. Today when I was surfing through the web I found this webpage that says that water is blue because it really IS blue! Check it out...
  5. B

    Why Do All Three Faucets Turn On When I Operate Just One?

    faucet mystery (help!) I'm in a physics class and we have 3 sinks in the class room on the same wall.All the faucet are off. When you turn one faucet on all 3 faucet are on and the water is running from them. So; when you turn faucet 1 on , 2 and 3 are also on when you turn faucet 2 on , 1...
  6. murshid_islam

    Why is 0! equal to 1 in mathematics?

    can anyone please help me with this. why is 0! = 1? :confused: thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
  7. D

    The Mystery of Standing Waves: How Do Guitar Strings Produce Sound?

    if a standing wave is a wave which transfers no energy, how is it that a guitar string produces a sound? because it produces it via a standing wave, and the sound is sound energy, so where does the energy come from?
  8. N

    Unraveling the Mystery of Current: Expressing F in Seconds and Ohms

    I have this problem I just can't figure out. Current = A (Ampere) i(t)=z(e^t/(RC)) where z is the initial current at t=0, R is the resistance in Ohms and C is the capacitance expressed in secondary units as F (Farad) - Express the units of F in terms of seconds and ohms So, this...
  9. michael879

    Unravelling the Mystery of Light's Constant Speed: Challenges and Proofs

    I get the theory of special relativity, it is the logical conclusion drawn from the two facts that: a) the laws of physics are the same in all reference frames b) the speed of light is constant in all reference frames what I don't get is why einstein thought the speed of light was constant...
  10. S

    Exploring the Mystery of "Wear Out" in Non-Mechanical Systems

    I understand why mechanical systems that are not capable of self repair wear out, but for years now I've been totally puzzled as to why things which do not have wearing parts wear out, such as - phosphores, rechargable batteries, capacitors, fluorecent lights, electrodes, vacuum tubes...
  11. F

    The Mystery of Ringed Planets: Uncovering the Cause

    What's preventing Saturn's rings from condensing into a moon? Or Jupiter's, Uranus' and Neptune's for that matter?
  12. K

    Mystery of the Perfectly-Circular Pizza: What's the Diameter?

    a perfectly-circular pizza comes in a square box with a card in the box. the card measures 140mm by 70 mm. what is the diameter of the pizza? i tried similar squares but this did not work? any help anyone
  13. S

    Uncovering the Mystery of A in Lattice Energy Equation

    I've just come across a problem and the equation within this problem isn't entirely explained in the text. I've searched on the net for this same 'lattice energy' equation, but there have been no results. Here is the equation: E = Aexp^ \frac{-r} { \alpha} - \frac{Me^2} {4 \pi \epsilon_0 r}...
  14. A

    Uncovering the Mystery of Complex Roots

    Now this bugs me. First there were no negative numbers. Then there were no square roots to negative numbers. Then every real number had two square roots, but no word on imaginary numbers. Luckily for me, I had a calculator that told me the square root of i wasn't some other type of number or I...
  15. O

    Gravity Mystery: Ask "GR Crowd" for Deeper Understanding

    In the cosmology forum I posted this statement: , to which a PF mentor kindly replied: I fully accept what he says, but would be interested if any of "the GR crowd" would like to comment further. What I am asking is: by what means does mass/energy shape the geometry of spacetime? Does...
  16. DaveC426913

    Uncovering the Mystery of a Manitoulin Island Fossil

    Found this fossil on Manitoulin Island in Central Ontario - Canadian Shield area. I'd be interested in knowing what epoch they're from. I'm thinkin' it's tube worms? Graptolites? Or rebar.
  17. B

    Unraveling the Mystery: X-Rays from Black Holes

    Light cannot escape from a black hole; however, x-rays have been detected from black holes. How is this possible? is it because of the accretion disk? where does it come from? is that all there is to the answer? thanks
  18. Andre

    What Does New Research Reveal About the End of the Last Glacial Period?

    Today I'd like to draw the attention to the end of the last glacial period. Those who have looked at ice core graphs may recall that the Antarctic ice cores appeared to react first around 17,000 years ago and then with a relative mild change in isotope values (interpreted as temperature change)...
  19. E

    Reversal of Venus: Mystery of the Solar System

    planet venus? i read sometime ago that the venus revolves in opposite direction around the sun as compared to other planets.please tell me is it true? if yes then WHY?
  20. wolram

    The Mystery of the Titanic from Barfleur

    Or the ancient titanic, it sailed from Barfleur, anyone know anything about it? i will not give any more details so you do not go wasting your time googling, it is just that i need some details.
  21. wolram

    Mystery of the Natural Spring: A Severn Trent Tale

    At a time when there was a hose pipe ban, a person down the village noticed water gushing up from her lawn, she called severn trent (the local water authority and they told her ( it is not our problem it is a natural spring) for 5 weeks this lady watched her lawn being washed down the drain...
  22. fargoth

    Exploring the Mystery of Color Mixing with Red, Yellow & Blue

    im reading some of feynman's lecture notes, and i stumbled upon a statement which i do not understand... he says that we can use ANY three different colors to produce any other color. lets say we want to see the color X, and we use yellow blue and red (Y,B,R) then X = yY + bB + rR. where...
  23. Math Is Hard

    Medical Mystery Disease Makes Peoples' Skin Crawl

    I was just reading about "Morgellons Disease". At first I thought this was a psychotic symptom. I've definitely heard of similar crawling sensations experienced by schizophrenia sufferers. But it sounds like there might actually be a strange dermatological condition that these people are...
  24. J

    Solving the Mystery of Number Theory: 1/3+1/3^2+1/3^3... + 1/3^n=1/2(1-1/3^n)

    I am new to number theory and i so far like it. I recently found this problem but there was no explanation of how they got it and i was wondering if any of you knew how they got it. It is this: 1/3+1/3^2+1/3^3... + 1/3^n=1/2(1-1/3^n) Then they used: 1/4+1/4^2+1/4^3... +...
  25. B

    The Mystery of Carol and Her Father's Ages

    carol's age in years, can be expressed by reversing the digits in her father's age, in years. the sum of the digits in each age is 10. the positive difference between carol's age in years, and her fater's age in years___36 a.> b.< c.= d.uncertain In my opinion, there are four pairs...
  26. U

    Uncovering the Mystery of Pi's Value

    Pi is the most interesting number. I was thinking about the value for Pi that is accepted by the Scientific and Mathematic community, which starts off as 3.141592653... and so on to infinity. My question is, How did they get this value of Pi as the most approximate? Did they use extremely...
  27. wolram

    Mystery Money: Unearthing a Subconscious Message

    Ok, every time after i use my bed i make it, three times this week i have found money on it when i next go to use it, now i am the only one that lives here so i must be putting this money between 30 and 40p on the bed, but for the life of me i can not remember doing it, i must be leaving...
  28. Ivan Seeking

    The Keith Richards Jet Ski Mystery: What Really Happened in Fiji?

    What is the real answer to the mystery? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605010196may01,1,5656742.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
  29. Ivan Seeking

    Mystery Boom in San Diego County April 4

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20060423-9999-1n23bigboom.html
  30. Danger

    Solving the Mystery of Spaghetti: Why Can't You Break It in Two?

    Hi, all; An interesting question was posed this morning by the science correspondent on Canada AM. Apparently, it's also in New Scientist magazine. He claims that it's unsolved, and I figured there's no better place than PF to go when searching for engineering solutions. I'm putting it in GE...
  31. S

    Physics Test Mystery: Paper Flight Through Bernoulli's Theorem

    I got this question on my physics test "What will happen if you blow over a piece of paper?" I answered that with enough blowing, the wind created would make the paper fly off. Apparently according to my teacher, the correct answer was that from Bernouilli's theorem, the air velocity above...
  32. K

    The Mystery of 360 Degrees in a Circle

    Does anyone know why there is 360 degrees in a circle? Why not 100 for simplicity sake?
  33. T

    Explore the Mystery of the Underwater Mountain & Penguinos

    will someone who has google Earth please go to 1 deg 55'24.90"N 157 deg 21'52.47"W at an altitude around 100 miles Do you see an underwater mountain the exact same size and shape as the island next to it? the two foot print shapes could be where god stood when he created the earth, but...
  34. T

    Exploring the Mystery of Black Hole Entropy Increase

    Supposing I started off with a particle, which I know exactly the state it is in, hence, it is in a pure state. And hence also, its entropy is zero. Now, suppose we throw the particle into the black hole and be sucked in, then, then the area of the black hole increases and hence, the entropy of...
  35. N

    The Spiral in our Ears - Maths solves inner ear mystery

    This topic could well be in a section related to biology, but more people visit the GD area. So... http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/3/8/1
  36. M

    Solving the Mystery Problem: Finding the Submarine Depth & Velocity

    Okay, I need some help yet again. Our teacher is giving us no hints on the "mystery problem" on our test tomorrow. "A boat sends a sonar down to find a submarine underwater. The boat estimates the velocity of sound under the water to be 1500 m/s. Howeer, they are wrong about that velocity...
  37. H

    Uncovering the Mystery of High Reading Speeds

    what is your reading speed?? And if by the way,it is high..what factors are responsible for that.. Have you ever seen anyone having a reading speed of 3000 or more than that...i don't know how that's possible,,doesn't it mean the person has enormous control over his mind..
  38. C

    Jerry Noble and His Theory: Unveiling a Mystery

    Does anybody know anything about this guy, Jerry Noble, who wrote this theory at: [url edited out - Zz.] Chris
  39. B

    Unraveling the Mystery of Perfect Tenses - Source Required

    "Perfect" Tense? Why are Perfect tenses called "Perfect" tenses? Where did they get the "Perfect" from? I require a source, as well.
  40. T

    Andrica's Conjecture Disproved: A Mathematical Mystery Solved

    Ok my thread seems to have gone into a black hole. The existence of such a number would disprove Andrica's conjecture.
  41. P

    Electric Force: Solving the Mystery of Coulomb's Law

    Electric Force! I am uncertain how to apply Coulomb's law, if this is even the right way to go about it, to this problem on Electric Force because I am not given two charges. The question is: On average, the electron and proton in a hydrogen atom are separated by a distance of 5.3x10^-11 m...
  42. J

    Unraveling the Mystery of "Seed Universes"

    My Seed Theory? Please help... This is what I came up with on my own and I was wondering if there is already a thought process or theory on this. Singularities formed by black holes are the "seeds" for new universes. The matter needed for new universes is created from the matter...
  43. K

    Solving the Ladybug's Clock Puzzle: Unraveling the Mystery

    Ok here is what the problem states in the book "A ladybug settled onto the tip of a clock's minute hand. The minute hand is 12ft long. How far does the ladybug travel from 3:00pm to 3:20pm?" I figured there are 30 degrees to every hour (divide 360 by 12). Then the 20 minutes would...
  44. Ivan Seeking

    Exploring the Mysterious "Black Aurora": A UAF Research Mystery

    http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF4/422.html
  45. D

    Unraveling the Mystery of Cu(en)2 in Chemistry

    Cu(en)2 ?? I was wondering what the (en) stood for in [Cu(en)2(H2O)2]2+ I was surfing the web and noticed that it appeared in several articles. Thanks!
  46. T

    Unraveling the Mystery of Folded Steel in Japanese Katanas

    From a materials science perspective, what is the point to folded steel? How does the folding process affect the properties of the metal? The place I see this extensively is in Japanese swords, such as Katanas. They will say "hand folded X times" with X usually being anywhere from 150-750, with...
  47. P

    Unravelling the Mystery: What Happens When You Squash Something?

    OK this kind of has to do with physics, but more of what happnes when you squash something i suppose. Anyways my dad told me this riddle and when i gave up he said he forgot the answer and it has been bugging me for a while. One thing traveling on a straight path must come to a stop before...
  48. J

    Unlock the Mystery of Kaprekar's Constant

    I just ran across this today: http://www.trottermath.net/recurops/kaprekar.html I find this pretty neat, so I just had to post it. take any four digit number w/o repreated digits, and re-order from greatest to least, then subtract it's mirror image number from it and repeat, you will...
  49. J

    The DNA of Eve: Uncovering the Mystery of Human Origins

    It is my understanding that the DNA guys have concluded that all Homo sapiens originated as progeny of a single "Eve" in Central(?) Africa. Since I haven't heard anything about "Adam," I assume that the genetic tracers don't allow anything to be said about the male lineage. Be that as it may...
  50. daniel_i_l

    Unraveling the Mystery of Warped 4D Spacetime

    In 2D for example, warping it only makes sense in a 3D enviorment. In a 2D world, bending 2D would be meaningless. So in GR when we talk about bending 4D ST, is a fifth dimension needed to give ST something to "bend into"? If not, in what sense can we talk about warped ST? I suspect that...
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