Mystery Definition and 913 Threads

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. M

    Solving the Mystery of Entropy

    I've always found entropy a hard concept to grasp. Some time I read something that seems to make it more clear, then another time I read something else which completely disturbs my understanding of the idea. My current problem with entropy is the violation of the the conservation laws. And...
  2. A

    Tackling YouTube's 'Physics' Mystery: An Investigation

    This video was featured on youtube's front page, sounds like BS, but I'm no physicist, so I coming here for some answers.
  3. C

    Mystery equation written by an 8yr old

    I have a question, at this looks like the most likely place to get an answer. My son wrote an equation on his wall when he was 8 yrs old. He has a learning disability, and could not know this kind of math... Dr. Claude Swanson is working on it right now, but I was hoping someone else could help...
  4. B

    The Mystery of WASP-18b: Uncovering the Mass and Rotation of Its Mother Star

    Does someone know the mass of the mother star WASP-18b is circling around as well as the rotation speed?
  5. G

    The Mystery of Dry Ice Smoke: Is it CO2?

    Does anyone know why you can see the smoke coming from dry ice? Is it actually CO2? It does not make sense to me, why could I see CO2 evaporating, but I cannot see it normally? Is it the moisture in the air that I can see reacting with the cold CO2?
  6. B

    Light OR Sound? - Unraveling the Mystery

    Light OR Sound! When we clap, we hear a sound..The reason is that on clapping sound waves are produced... My question here is why? Why Does Clapping produce a sound wave and not a light wave...Or when we light a torch, why are sound waves not produced... Also, When a electron jumps from...
  7. K

    Specific heat capacity of a mystery metal

    i found the average specific heat of a metal through an experiment it is 200. my only problem now is identifying it. i have tried many website but can't find anything useful please make some suggestions
  8. D

    Mystery Physicist Story: Who Was the Experimenter?

    One of my professors told me a story about a physicist and I can't remember who it was. It's driving me crazy. This is what I remember about the story. Apparently this physicist was a new faculty member and he had a seemingly brilliant plan for some experiment. All of the older faculty members...
  9. Z

    Solving the Mystery: Calculating Terminal Velocity

    Homework Statement Marks: 1 In a recent mystery, the hero saves himself by spreading out a windshield tarpaulin to reduce his terminal velocity. A skydiver of 75 kg mass has a terminal velocity of 60 m/s. If the hero has the same 75 kg mass, the same density as the sky diver, and a drag...
  10. 0

    Unraveling the Mystery of Boltzmann Brains & Landscapes

    Could someone give me a quick explanation what Boltzmann brains are? Does it have something to do with the landscape?
  11. M

    Gravity's Constant Near Earth's Surface: Exploring the Mystery

    ALl the books say that g is constant near the Earth's surface but how is this even possible if it is dependant on the distance from the centre of the earth? because it depends on where we are why does it stil remain constant?
  12. J

    Mystery Spot illusion explanation

    http://www.mysteryspot.com/ How do you explain what you experience there? I understand it's all optical illusion. I can explain - people walking on the wall, pendulum swinging at an angle - is just a slant-walled house. The thing I could not explain is the relative height difference...
  13. T

    Organic Mystery Goo Off Alaskan Coast

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5835975/Arctic-sea-full-of-huge-blobs-of-floating-goo.html http://www.adn.com/2835/story/864687.html Anyone else heard about this yet? Are we under attack from some alien life form? :o Any theories as to what could explain this? Edit...
  14. L

    The World's First Time Machine: A Documentary and a Mystery

    I just finished watching a documentary called The World's First Time Machine on youtube about a dude trying to use lasers to send particles back in time. It's kinda old but I'm sure a lot of you have already seen it. I can link it if you want. But they were acting like the dude was on the...
  15. C

    The Mystery of Anti-Matter at Fermi Lab

    at Fermi lab they create anti-matter or I guess they don’t create it but they synthesize it , where do they keep it so it doesn't react with regular matter and produce light.
  16. R

    Exploring the Mystery of Vacuum Space

    According to science space time matter and energy all coexist, so when you talk about empty space, or the vacuum of empty space, I assume you talk about space without matter. How can this be?!??! Would this be a different type of space beyond our normal comprehension, something beyond spacetime?
  17. A

    Why Are Lifeline and Mailbug Devices Incompatible on the Same Phone Line?

    Solve this Electronics Mystery! Hey guys - I really need some help from you experts. My elderly mother and father-in-law have two electrical devices that are, for unexplained reasons, totally incompatible with each other. I need some ideas to identify solutions for this bizarre problem...
  18. P

    Exploring the Mystery of Crop Circle Pics

    Dear all, Crop circle is an old story. I myself think it's just the hoax of mankind, but it seems there are pictures still in mystery. Have they proved that those pics are just products of people? Thanks (I hope this quest is suitable in this box)
  19. J

    Exploring Thermal Light: The Candle Flame Mystery

    Imagine you're lighting a candle, and it emits yellow light. Because the candle flame is hot, the light is probably thermal (not atomic) in origin. Right? If you made a spectrum of the candle light, it would appear to be continuous, and that would confirm experimentally that the light was...
  20. M

    Comet Tails: A Mystery of Solar Forces

    Did you know... ...that a comet's tail doesn't indicate the direction in which the comet is flying? I didn't, but having come across "Deep Impact" on TV yesterday made me wonder how a comet could have a tail formed from its coma when there is no friction to extend the dust to such a tail. And...
  21. F

    Solving a Maple Mystery: Why Does x=root(x^2+1)/x=.5root(2+root(20))?

    Homework Statement can someone please tell me why maple says that x=root(x^2+1)/x=.5root(2+root(20))?? ive tried trig and rearranging, but i have idea why this is so..
  22. L

    Unraveling the Mystery of a Two-Car Crash

    Homework Statement On May 19, an accident occurred at the corner of two asphalt streets with no stop signs. The speed limit was 40 km/h on both streets. As lead CSI on the case, you must determine whether one or both cars should be ticketed for speeding, which car had right of way at the...
  23. R

    What Is Energy: Physical Reality or Mathematical Construct?

    I've been throwing this term energy around for a while now, and thinking about it I have absolutely no idea what it is. Is it something that actually exists in the universe, or just a construct that we use to simplify problems? Terms like kinetic energy, and even gravitational potential...
  24. B

    Solving a 1974 kg Weather Rocket Mystery

    Lost please help! A 1974 kg weather rocket is launched straight up. The rocket motor provides a constant acceleration for 20.27 s, then the motor stops. The rocket altitude 23.94 s after launch is 7242. You can ignore any effects of air resistance. What was the rocket's acceleration during...
  25. K

    Exploring the Mystery of a Black Hole in the Milky Way

    What leads us to believe that there is a black hole in the center of the milky way? If there is one, why is the center of galaxies always depicted as being a bright sphere? Is it a rotating black hole, and how would've it formed?
  26. A

    Who is the Killer at the Beach Barbecue?

    The Story It was 1st October, Matt, Cherry, and the 2 new detective girls, Amanda and Sylvia from Redrum University decided to give them a break from all kind of murder cases happened around them. Sylvia suggested they have a vacation at a beach which is not far away from where their...
  27. S

    Radius x Height: Unpacking the Mystery of Volume in Cubes

    Hi, The volume of a cone is 1/3 pi R^2 h. Why then is the answer in units cubed. Certainly the h is contributing a third dimension but in general math you don't see this happening X^2 * Z = X^3 but the below is true X^2 * X = X^3 Can a radius be multiplied by a height to make the...
  28. C

    What is a Retract Servo? Uncovering the Mystery

    I was browsing a hobby supplies site, and I came across retract servos. What are they? I know what a servo is, but I can't seem to find the definition of a retract servo. I've been searching for a while, and I'm sure it's there just staring back at me from the computer screen, but I'm not...
  29. Ivan Seeking

    Giant mystery blob found near dawn of time

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30353034/
  30. M

    Unravelling the Mystery of the Inward Pulling Shower Curtain

    I am wondering why a shower curtain is pulled inward when you turn on the shower. Yes, I have read the classic answer that this is due to Bernoulli's law: the water makes the air move, and moving air has a lower pressure. Only, this does not make any sense at all if you know anything about...
  31. E

    Understanding the Mystery of Wind at the Beach

    Why does the wind blow off the ocean during the day at the beach, and off the land during the night?
  32. M

    Uncovering the Mystery of Constant Velocity

    if, a particular body rotates ,with a certain velocity then every particle of that moves with the same velocity as that of body.if the Earth is moving at a velocity,we also move with same velocity daily . for eg:the speed of light was discovered to be 3x10^8m/s wrt to earth,but is it the...
  33. L

    Particles with Spin 1/2: Unraveling the Mystery

    Why there can exist some particles having spin = 1/2? I understand, the postive numbers but what do the negative number mean? Also, I would like to ask why some photons can be detected when it comes to light, but photon is not detected when it comes to charge replusion? What is the difference...
  34. snoopies622

    Mystery Equation Found at UNH Physics Library!

    The UNH Physics Library has equations carved here and there on its walls. So far I recognize every one I've seen except this one: S = \frac {-1}{2 \pi \alpha ' } \int d \tau d \sigma \sqrt { -det (\frac {\partial X ^m}{\partial a} \frac {\partial X_m}{\partial b} ) } The...
  35. J

    How Are Quantum Numbers Derived from the Schrödinger Equation?

    let me see if I got this one right: By solving the S E for bound system u got the quantum number n l and ml. each set of numbers corresponds to a curtain wave function and electron. One gots fine structure when adding the spin up 1/2 and down 1/2. so every electron in the atom has a set of...
  36. C

    Unveiling the Mystery of Space & Time in Relativity Theory

    After reading a few books on relativity, I came to the conclusion that space and time are "somethings". And that if you removed all matter and energy from the universe space and time, or spacetime, would still remain. Perhaps I missed something, but in my history book at school I found in a...
  37. U

    Can anyone explain this self healing mystery.

    Can anyone explain this "self healing" mystery. Can anyone think of any type of failure mode in an electronic component that could account for the following weird case of my self healing LCD monitor. ---------------------------------------- I've got this LCD monitor that's got a weird...
  38. Mentallic

    Unravelling the Mystery of Radioactive Decay

    This problem has always bugged me, and the only answers I've been given were on the lines of "meh". What I don't understand is that if we are given 1 gram of a radioactive substance with a half life of n years, why is it that after n years, the substance is reduced to 0.5 grams of radioactive...
  39. M

    Unravelling the Mystery of the Neutron

    Hi there, I'm a lay person and would appreciate if anyone could point me in the direction of a good theoretical explanation of the neutron. All I can remember from high school physics is an explanation that went something like:- "Uh, well it doesn't actually do anything, it's just there do make...
  40. H

    The Mystery of Satellite Speed: Solving an Elliptical Orbit

    Homework Statement A satellite is in an elliptical orbit at altitudes ranging from 230 to 890 km. At the high point it's moving at 7.23 km/s. How fast is it moving at the low point? I would think i would have to use some sort of energy conservation equations. but i really don't know where...
  41. M

    Finding the Mystery gas questions

    I'm doing an experiment of the Bohr's theory and the Rydberg constant. I want to find the element of a mystery gas using the derivation of the Bohr's theory: 1/λ=RZ^2 (1/〖n_i〗^2 -1/〖n_f〗^2 ) I think if I have the wavelength lambda, all I need to do is guessing a right series of n_i and n_f...
  42. N

    Discovering the Mystery of Music from a D Battery and Steel Wire

    Hey everyone, I was tinkering with a battery, wire and such earlier, and I discovered something odd. :bugeye: I had a steel? wire and I placed the ends onto the terminals of a D battery for a time, and obviously, it warmed up. But I also had a thing that played a recorded music track when two...
  43. F

    The Mystery of the Schroedinger Equation in a Magnetic Field

    Hi all, there is something I cannot completely understand about the Schroedinger equation for a charged particle in a constant magnetic field. I think I get most of it, hopefully, but there is something I still am unable to fit into place. So we know that when a magnetic field is present...
  44. A

    Exploring the Mystery of Coplanar Orbits

    Our solar system is often depicted, as it is on the poster on my wall, as the Sun and all of its satellites in coplanar orbits around it. I thought, however, that this "flat" representation was just a creative liberty taken to make is possible to put on a poster, but now I come to find out that...
  45. wolram

    Dark Matter: An Unexplained Mystery

    Would Dark matter form out of the primordial plasma at the same time as baryonic matter, did some thing special happen to form this weakly interacting particle?
  46. L

    Solving the Mystery of Two Cart Exploding Force

    Homework Statement I feel silly posting such a simple problem, but a substantial amount of thinking, Googling, and scouring these forums has not yielded an answer. Homework Equations Newton's Second Law: F*_net = ma* (where the asterisk denotes a vector quantity) Newton's Third Law...
  47. T

    Why Does the Hammer Appear to Change Rotation Direction in Mid-Air?

    Hammer Rotation Mystery.? Hi... Below is a link that shows a blond Russian lady Hammer thrower (ther are about 4 other people befor the video gets to the blond Russian lady) which includes slow motion video of when her hammer hits the ground.! in the video of the Russian lady...
  48. B

    Leather Belts & Electric Sparks: Exploring the Mystery

    Homework Statement Explain why large sparks are often seen jumping from leather belts driving machinery. Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I know metal chains are off trucks to stop electric static but I'm not sure why leather. Is leather a conductor?
  49. M

    Radar? Sonar? Solve A Mystery Please

    I have a strange mystery. My house sings! I am wondering if anyone can take a guess at what could cause this. I have occasional insomnia, which leaves me lying there in bed in the wee hours of the night when it is dead silent. Well, this morning was one of those. I woke up around 1:00 am...
  50. B

    Solving a Physics Mystery: Initial Speed & Height of Ball

    Homework Statement A batted baseball leaves the bat at an angle of 33.0 above the horizontal and is caught by an outfielder 400 ft from home plate at the same height from which it left the bat What was the initial speed of the ball? How high does the ball rise above the point where it...
Back
Top