'Jeopardy!' super fans use a specific method to calculate a player's score

'Jeopardy!' was conceived as a way to earn back skeptical audiences' trust

In the wake of the ‘50s scandals, networks were reluctant to greenlight new quiz shows. Merv Griffin’s wife suggested he flip the formula on its head, providing contestants with the answers (the exact act that had led to the scandals) and asking them to provide the questions. “Jeopardy!” premiered in 1964, effectively reviving the genre. It eventually became the top-rated quiz show in history with 23 million viewers.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

The best wrong answers from 'Jeopardy!'

“Jeopardy!” is known for its geniuses, but that doesn’t mean every minute of the show is an illustration of brilliance. This compilation corrects some of the funniest incorrect responses from contestants, making for over 10 minutes of hilarity.

The 'Jeopardy!' theme was originally written as a lullaby

Merv Griffin originally composed the song in 1963 as a way to help his son Tony fall asleep and claims he wrote it in less than a minute. The song, played during Final Jeopardy!, is called "Think." It's estimated that the song alone has earned Griffin over $100M.

One contestant allegedly used well-timed coughs to con 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'

Charles Ingram won the show’s top prize in 2002, though producers found his performance, which featured several strange responses, suspicious. After reviewing the footage, the producers discovered several coughs that aligned with the correct answers and theorized that Ingram’s wife and another contestant were using the coughs to convey the correct answers to him. Ingram maintained his innocence, yet he was tried and convicted of fraud.

'Scorigami' attempts to chart every NFL game score

The rules of the sport set bounds on possible final outcomes, so this adept statistician mined some fascinating takeaways. Some scores are impossible (like 5 to 1) and some are more common (like 20-17, occurring over 300 times since 1944). Watch for a deluge of numbers.

Test your knowledge of famous death days

Of the thousands of celebrities whose name you know, how many can you remember the year they died? This simple game tests your knowledge of celebrity death days. An exact match gets you 1,000 points, and if you select within 15 years of the right year you get some points. Go see how much you remember here.

What's your ACE score, and what does that mean for your health?

An ACE score is a way of measuring adverse childhood experiences, which can negatively impact health outcomes. Take this quiz to determine your score and what that means for your health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser...

'Daily fantasy' is a high-stakes subset of fantasy sports

The form, pioneered by platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings, uses anonymous daily leagues and large payouts, looks more like typical betting than the season-long, community-minded setup of more traditional fantasy.

Guess US city populations via bracket-style game

The US Census Bureau's data visualization team created a game—laid out like a March Madness basketball bracket—where you try to decide which metro area of two has the greater population. Test your knowledge of relative city populations and see...

What it means to call a bracket 'chalk'

If the tournament is rather boring, you might hear a curious word getting thrown around: "chalk." In short, it means that the favorites have been winning. The word's origins go back to horse racing and its sportsbooks, where bookies would post odds on chalkboards. Over time, the bookies came to be known as "chalk" and, years later, tournaments (and their brackets) that seemed to favor those bookies earned the name, too.

The CD whose rates change based on Villanova basketball games

Ardent Credit Union in Philadelphia tied the interest rates of one of its certificates of deposit to whether Villanova won or lost a basketball game. A win moved the rate to 4.25%, while a loss reduced it to 3.9%. Financial experts say its only beneficial for a narrow group

A prediction market was more accurate than most polls about the 2024 US presidential election

The idea that the median estimate of a group can be more accurate than individual expert estimates is called the "wisdom of the crowd," and dates back to the early 1900s. This theory can help explain the perceived value of prediction markets when it comes to polling and more.

How Eurovision selects its winners

Competing acts are judged by a combination of music industry professionals, peers, and viewers, creating a suspenseful on-air tally to reveal the contest's ultimate winner.

GothamChess built the largest online chess audience in the world

International Master Levy Rozman, known as GothamChess, has more than 6 million YouTube subscribers and billions of views. His mix of tutorials, commentary, and humor has introduced millions of new fans to the game in the digital era. In this video, he discusses his decision to challenge Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.

A lot of jazz relies on syncopation

The style is when a musician plays a rhythm on the opposite side of the beat. That means notes are played on the "upbeats," or the spaces between the main beats of a musical bar. The effect is music that can sound unpredictable, even if it's been carefully constructed.

Meet Clever Hans, the 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations and read German

When Clever Hans was prompted with math questions, he responded by tapping his hoof to indicate his answers. Even a panel of experts found no indication of trickery in the horse's demonstrations. However, psychology student Oskar Pfungst found that Hans stopped tapping once a subtle cue on his owner's face told him to stop. The cues were so subtle that Wilhelm von Osten didn't even know he was giving them.

Kal Penn explains credit scores

Kal Penn, the actor who played Kumar in the “Harold and Kumar” films and appeared in shows like “How I Met Your Mother” and “House,” just so happens to know a thing or two about how the credit scoring system works in the US.

How a brain injury created a mathematical mind

In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion--and turning Padgett into a mathematical genius.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Exploring one the rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar, one of the Triple Crown's best matchups

The rivalry between Affirmed and Alydar began when they were just two-year-olds in 1977, with Alydar winning four of the first five meetings. But Affirmed found another gear in 1978, and he won the next five races–including the Triple Crown. This Horse Racing Legends video shows all 10 races in the rivalry, including the three Triple Crown races.

The science of cryptography, including methods to encrypt data and how to break encryption

Monoalphabetic ciphers use a set of rules to replace each letter with another consistently, making them susceptible to brute force attacks that try every kind of replacement. While more complex ciphers can transform text in less obvious ways, because certain letters are used more often than others, an analysis of letter frequency may reveal patterns that help uncover the rules that make up a cipher.

What is VantageScore?

The three major credit bureaus introduced the VantageScore credit score in 2006 as a competitor to FICO. It’s calculated slightly differently from a FICO score, though just like the FICO score, it’s widely used by lenders.

One 'Harry Potter' fan fiction deals with cognitive science and philosophy

Eliezer Yudkowsky's "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" is not your typical fan fiction: It uses JK Rowling's fictional universe to wrestle with rationalist philosophy and the physics behind the magic taught at Hogwarts. The book went on to become popular in Silicon Valley, especially in the effective altruism movement.

Behind the Ryder Cup, the tournament that features golfers playing for their home countries

Established in 1927, the Ryder Cup is unlike any other tournament. The scoring includes a mix of fourball, foursomes, and singles, with half-points for ties. Explore the rich history of the Ryder Cup in this detailed interactive. Each era of history includes detailed accounts of the match, historic photos, and the final score for each team.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Why TikTok's algorithm is likely driven by what you linger on

While the inner workings of the engine driving the vast majority of the app's engagement remain a secret, it is understood to rely heavily on what content users spend the most time watching rather than swipe past. Experts believe the app can develop user profiles robust enough for its algorithm to consistently match engaging content to in as little as two hours.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Scientists testing how climate change affects plants found, in a years-long simulation study, that poison ivy grew 70% faster with the resulting extra carbon dioxide.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children