An egg of Columbus or Columbus' egg refers to a brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple or easy after the fact. The expression refers to an apocryphal story, dating from at least the 15th century, in which it is said that Christopher Columbus, having been told that finding a new trade route 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 eggon 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 a tangram puzzle and several mechanical puzzles. It also shows that anything can be done by anyone with the right set of skills; however, not everyone knows how to do it.
Significant cultural references
mentions Columbus's egg in her Introduction to the Third Edition of Frankenstein, writing "In all matters of discovery and invention, even of those that appertain to the imagination, we are continually reminded of the story of Columbus and his egg. Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it." Adolf Hitler used the metaphor in Mein Kampf, saying that " lie around us in hundreds of thousands; but observers like Columbus are rare." Leo Tolstoy mentions Columbus’ egg in War and Peace after Helene explains to her spiritual guide her reasoning as to why she is not bound by her previous vows of marriage to Pierre after switching religions. "The spiritual guide was astonished at this solution, which had all the simplicity of Columbus’ egg." Westinghouse Electric's Nikola Tesla display at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition used the story in an "Egg of Columbus" exhibit that had the rotating magnetic field in an alternating currentinduction motor spin a large copper egg until it stood on end. F. Scott Fitzgerald refers to Columbus' egg in The Great Gatsby when describing the topography of the fictional East and West eggs: "They are not perfect ovals - like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end - but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual wonder to the seagulls that fly overhead."
