THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 20

Why do contestants on the game show Jeopardy answer in the form of a question, and how can this help us be more creative?

Subject: Invention - Eureka Effect 

Event:  Debut of Jeopardy, 1964

Anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy. -John Dewey

On this day in 1964, the popular game show Jeopardy made its debut. The show was created by Merv Griffin, who also composed the show’s famous theme song.  The song, which is entitled “Think,” was originally called “A Time for Tony,” since it was composed as a lullaby for Griffin’s son.

In the introduction to Alex Trebek’s The Jeopardy Book, Griffin explains that he wanted to create a trivia game show, but he was worried about the backlash from the 1950s quiz show scandals. Game shows with trivia themes had fallen in popularity because of revelations that some contestants had been given answers by the shows’ producers.  

The eureka moment that gave birth to Jeopardy came on a plane flight in 1963. Talking with his wife about the quiz show quandary, Griffin took note of a seemingly off the cuff comment by his wife:  “Why not just give them the answers to start with?”

                                                                    Image by Aquib Azad from Pixabay 

Griffin originally called his show “What’s the Question?” but that changed when he pitched his game to a network executive. The executive was concerned that the game lacked drama since once a player had a sizable lead, he could play it safe. The executive commented, “I like what I see, but the game needs more jeopardies!” It’s that comment that changed the show’s title and the show’s format. After the executive’s comment, Griffin added the climactic moment that makes or breaks the show: Final Jeopardy (1).

Appropriately enough, the word jeopardy began as a French gaming term from chess, meaning a divided or even game. It evolved, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, to mean any game in which the chances of winning or losing were even (2). So when the executive told Merv Griffin, “The game needs more jeopardizes,” he was most likely not referring to the modern sense of the word, meaning danger or peril, but to the gaming sense of the word, meaning, “Let’s keep the final outcome in doubt until the end.”

The sudden, unexpected flash of insight known as the Eureka Effect takes its name from the apocryphal story of Archimedes, the Greek mathematician and inventor.  Asked by the King of Syracuse to determine whether or not the royal crown was pure gold, Archimedes went to work to solve the problem, but after hours of diligent thinking became frustrated with his inability to determine an answer.  Tired and needing a break, Archimedes decided to take a bath.  As he climbed into his tub, he noticed how the water in the tub rose when he submerged his body in the bath.  This brought his flash of insight when he realized that he could measure the volume of the crown by immersing it in water.  Leaping from his tub, he proceeded to run through the street naked, yelling “Eureka!,” the Greek word meaning “I have found it!”

The moral of the story of “Archimedes’ Tub” is that although conscious, effortful reasoning is important for solving problems, we should not underestimate the power of our subconscious mind to work on problems even when we don’t consciously realize we’re working on them.  Whether taking a bath, taking a nap, or listening to a spouse's seemingly off the cuff comment, the subconscious remains on task and can generate an idea when you least expect it.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  Why does the game show Jeopardy require contestants to state their answers in the form of a question? What problem was Archimedes working on when he encountered the Eureka Effect?

Challenge -“Five Funky Facts for Five Hundred, Please”:  What is a general category that you know enough about to write quiz questions for?  Brainstorm some Jeopardy categories, such as Authors, Novels, The Beatles, or Game Shows.  Then, write 5 answers and questions in the Jeopardy format.

For example:

Answer: This game show debuted on March 20, 1964.

Question: What is Jeopardy?

Sources:

1-Trebek, Alex and Peter Barsocchini.  The Jeopardy! Book: The Answers, the Questions, the Facts, and the Stories of the Greatest Game Show in History. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.

2-American Heritage Dictionary.  “Jeopardy.”