Egg of Columbus
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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An egg of Columbus or Columbus' egg (uovo di Colombo) refers to a brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple or easy after the fact. The expression refers to an apocryphal story in which Christopher Columbus, having been told that discovering the Americas was inevitable and no great accomplishment, challenges his critics to make an egg stand on its tip. After his challengers give up, Columbus does it himself by tapping the egg on the table to flatten its tip.
The story is often alluded to when discussing creativity. The term has also been used as the trade name of puzzles.
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In popular culture
- The story is repeated in Pedro Calderón de la Barca's The Phantom Lady but the solution to the riddle is attributed by Calderón to Juanelo Turriano, instead.
- In the anime series of Lupin the Third film, The Columbus Files, the egg itself is a priceless artifact that was owned by Columbus.
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See also
- Hindsight bias, the inclination to see events that have already occurred as being more predictable than they were before they took place
- Egg of Li Chun, a Chinese egg-balancing tradition
- Tesla's Egg of Columbus, a metal egg that stands on end in a rotating magnetic field
- Columbus Breaking the Egg, an engraving by William Hogarth
- Egg of Columbus (tangram puzzle)
- Egg of Columbus (mechanical puzzle)
- Superegg, an egg-like toy designed by Piet Hein that stands on its ends
- Gömböc
- Gordian Knot
- Väinämöinen in Kalevala was asked to tie an egg into a knot, in which he succeeded
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