CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: Several problems surround the electrocution death and the investigation. First, there is the insinuation that the boots should have protected the victim from the electrocution because of the rubber soles. Regular shoes and standard work boots will not protect anyone from electric shock. You are still grounded. You have to wear special electrician's boots to insulate you from electric shock. These boots cost about triple standard work boots. Second, the CSI crew found a nail embedded in the boot. They theorized that is how the boots were grounded out. The problem there is the nail had to be pushed all the way through the sole and through the insole for it to work (the close up of the boot showed the nail in all the way). Even if the nail was barely through the insole, the victim would have felt the nail poking him at every step. With the nail all the way through, he wouldn't have even walked two steps before puncturing his foot on the nail. Third, there is the nail itself. When Grissom is examining the boots trying to find why they failed (failed to prevent the electrocution), he poses the question "What is the most common item found during construction?" The answer is a nail, and the nail in the boot appears to be a roofing nail. The construction site is for a multi-story prison. Nails aren't used in the construction of multi-story urban buildings: concrete and steel are. Carpenters come in after the building is erected and work on the interior, but there are no roofing nails.

Rlvlk

Alter Boys - S2-E6

Other mistake: In the scene where Grissom is talking to the coroner about the man who was shot and strangled with his tie, you can see the actor that played the body breathing. (00:07:30 - 00:08:00)

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: In the episode where the worker got electrocuted in a construction site the main character, before replaying the victim's fall, says that "terminal velocity is 9.8 seconds squared". What he should have said was that acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared.

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: When they are explaining why a nail was hammered into the electrocuted workman's boot, it is said that cars are protected from lightning strikes because they are insulated from the ground by their tires. Actually, tires conduct electricity, because they contain carbon (see: http://cartalk.cars.com/Columns/Archive/1994/November/11.html). Cars are actually protected from lightning by the Faraday Cage effect, which is explained on http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~kskeldon/PubSci/exhibits/E3/. Not a mistake CSI scientists would make.

J I Cohen

Bully for You - S2-E4

Factual error: In the scene where Grissom is talking to the coroner about the bully who was shot, they talk about how the bully had "Dextrocardia" which is why all his organs are a mirror image of normality e.g. heart on right and liver on left. In actual fact Dextrocardia is only when the heart is on the right rather than left, the actual condition Grissom should have said was "Situs Inversus" not "Dextrocardia."

Overload - S2-E3

Factual error: Grissom sets up a little experiment to see if the deceased's blood is conductive to electricity. All are amazed when the blood does conduct electricity. All blood is naturally conductive. As a matter of fact, cardiac output is measured as a function of blood conductivity.

Rlvlk

Cross-Jurisdictions - S2-E22

Revealing mistake: When the CSI from Miami and Catherine are in the autopsy, the guy goes to take a sample from the eyes of the dead woman. When he moves the swab towards her eye, you can see the actress' top eyelid move instinctively. She's supposed to have been dead for hours.

Overload - S2-E3

Other mistake: When Grissom goes to the crime scene to investigate, he finds the worker's drill hanging over the edge, still plugged in. Dropping the drill (35-45 pounds) 5-6 feet (the height of the worker) over the edge would have ripped the plug from the outlet and cause the drill to fall all the way to the ground with the victim. (Grissom barely puts any effort into unplugging the drill when he inspects it).

Rlvlk

Chasing the Bus - S2-E18

Continuity mistake: When Sara is waiting with Greg for the results for what was inside the tyre that exploded, she grabs the paper straight off the printer, reads it, looks at Greg and takes off immediately to inform Gil. When Grissom looks at the paper, you can see Greg's name is signed at the bottom as confirmation, but he never got anywhere near the paper.

Overload - S2-E3

Continuity mistake: When Nick is staring intently at the doctors lapel area, the camera zooms in and we see some lint on the doctors left lapel. When Nick asks Catherine to get the tape on it, Catherine approaches the suspect and she starts to put the tape on the left lapel, but when the camera zooms in for a close-up of her getting the lint, the tape is being applied to the RIGHT lapel.

Caged - S2-E7

Continuity mistake: When Grissom enters the cage in which the woman is found, he goes to the wastebasket to examine the pen that rolled on the floor. As he first picks it up, he grasps it right at the point where the black grip section meets the gray barrel section. As the shot changes and he continues bringing it up to examine it, he is now grasping it near the end of the gray barrel. As it is supposed to be a continuous shot (conversation is uninterrupted the entire time), there is no time for him to change his hand position.

Guy

Ellie - S2-E10

Factual error: The treasury officer stated that the couple was from "Las Vegas County". Anyone from the government (local/county/state/federal) should know Las Vegas is in 'Clark County'. Sara (who works for LVMPD/Clark County) did not react at all.

Overload - S2-E3

Continuity mistake: Nick is eating a hot dog when he's handed a warrant. Depending on the camera angle, he goes from taking a bite out of the hot dog to holding the hot dog in one hand and the warrant in the other simply with camera angle changes.

Chasing the Bus - S2-E18

Factual error: The CSI crew set up an experiment. They put some chloroform into the tire, set the bus on a dynamometer (or some other testing platform) and wait for the tire to fail. The tire fails in the experiment in the exact same amount of time as it did in real life. Problem: They have no idea how much chloroform was used and it would be impossible to match it by luck. More chloroform used would equal quicker failure. Then, there is the heat. The tire traveling over the hot asphalt road would build heat faster then on their testing platform. More heat would mean a quicker failure, too.

Rlvlk

Identity Crisis - S2-E13

Continuity mistake: Supposedly, Paul Millander was 10 years old when his father was killed. A newspaper report read by Sara in 1x08(Time 39:45) says this. It also says that his father died August 17th, 1959. In 2x13(Time 43:18), in the last scene, Grissom looks at Paul's birth certificate. It says that Paul was born August 17th, 1956, which would mean that he was actually 3 years old when his father died. (00:39:45 - 00:43:15)

Pilot - S1-E1

[To a room full of dead corpses, after Holly Gribbs was frightended into hysterics.]
Gil Grissom: You assholes!

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Play with Fire - S3-E22

Question: Why would Catherine take the blame for the lab explosion? If anyone was to blame it was Hodges. Since he accidentally turned on the hot plate and even admits that sometimes it gets switched on by others accidentally, if he had bothered to make sure he didn't switch it on before leaving the room, the explosion never would have happened.

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