From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A conundrum is a puzzling question. In one variety of conundrum, the question is posed as a riddle and the answer is or involves a pun. More broadly, a conundrum is any problem where the answer is very complex, possibly unsolvable without deep investigation. A mystery or paradox can often be phrased as a conundrum.
[edit] Examples
- If a sock becomes so darned that none of the originial yarn is there, then is it still the same sock?
[edit] Popular culture
- The "Countdown Conundrum" is the last round in Countdown, a British game show.
- Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan famously remarked that falling long-term rates at a time when he was raising short-term rates was a conundrum.
- Conundrum is the password and codename of the protagonist from the TV series Seven Days. Upon returning to the past, Lt. Frank Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia) would use this password to get in touch with his branch of the NSA.
- In "Phil of the Future", a TV show, a class is shown a huge, complicated problem called "Foucault's Last Conundrum", and if they solved it, they wouldn't have homework for a semester. The answer turned out to be 4.
- The computer game LOOM features a diamond chalice called the "Chromax Conundrum," made by the founder of the Guild of Glassmakers (the conundrum being why the chalice was made of diamond instead of glass).
- Conundrum is the name of the final episode of television show Dallas
- A Conundrum is the name of a musical / percussion instrument used by (and created especially for) singer/songwriter Tom Waits. It creates a variety of metal-on-metal sounds.
- Conundrum is the name of a modification for the game Half-Life.
[edit] See also
