CSI: NY

Not What It Looks Like - S3-E2

Factual error: Season 3, episode 49 (Not What It Looks Like). Breaking glass with sound is possible, but would not work as depicted in the episode. First, in order to break the glass, you have to force the glass to vibrate at its natural frequency - that is, the frequency at which it would vibrate if it were tapped. Each piece of glass has its own natural frequency, depending on a range of factors including size, chemical makeup, shape, hardness, and manufacturing methods. No single frequency would shatter all the glass in the store at the same time. Finally, in order to break the glass the piece has to be closed-ended. You can't shatter a plate of glass with sound (nowhere for the sound waves to resonate). Please see http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/feb98/887203231.Ph.r.html.

Kevin Hall

Murder Sings The Blues - S3-E7

Factual error: Several police and crime lab personnel are in the train car looking at the dead girl and discussing the possibility that this death could be the result of a bio-hazard or chemical hazard. Later in the episode, ebola and anthrax were discussed. These are level 3/4 hazards which require Hazmat suits and oxygen supplies. At the very least, there should have been very serious access control to the scene. None of them are wearing any type of protective gear except rubber gloves, and there is nothing more than standard crime scene access control. Contrast this with a scene later in the same episode where 2 characters in the lab are wearing respirators when dealing with the dust and other stuff from vacuum cleaning system. If the CSI team or the police really suspected that there was a biohazard or dangerous chemical agent present at the crime scene, then their behaviour was quite cavalier under the circumstances.

Kevin Hall

And Here's To You, Mrs. Azrael - S3-E9

Factual error: They state that the heart monitor on "Nicole" never showed any movement at all as she was being smothered, because the killer swapped it out and put it on herself. When Mrs. Rollins was smothering her daughter thinking it was Nicole, her heart rate would have raced and her blood pressure would have gone up a little as she strained to hold the bag over her face. The monitor would have picked that up.

Not What It Looks Like - S3-E2

Factual error: Danny explains how the glass was broken using ultrasound waves to hit the glass at their resonant frequency. He explains it could be done using a mp3-file and a mp3-player. As mp3-players are designed for the human ear, the upper frequency limit is around 20 khz, far too low to produce a sound capable of shattering glass.

Christoph Galuschka

What Schemes May Come - S3-E20

Factual error: When Mac is using the mouse to demonstrate induced hibernation to Peyton, the speed of the mouse's heartbeat on the heart monitor was about that of a human. Due to their small size, real mice have an average heartbeat of 500-600 bpm, which is so fast it can sound like humming.

Hung Out To Dry - S3-E4

Factual error: During the autopsy of the head, the shot changes to inside the eye, showing the needle entering to extract the vitreous fluid. The inside of the eyeball is shown as white. This is incorrect: the inner lining of the eye is black (hence why the pupil, a hole in the iris, looks black).

Not What It Looks Like - S3-E2

Factual error: Season 3, episode 49 (Not What It Looks Like). Breaking glass with sound is possible, but would not work as depicted in the episode. First, in order to break the glass, you have to force the glass to vibrate at its natural frequency - that is, the frequency at which it would vibrate if it were tapped. Each piece of glass has its own natural frequency, depending on a range of factors including size, chemical makeup, shape, hardness, and manufacturing methods. No single frequency would shatter all the glass in the store at the same time. Finally, in order to break the glass the piece has to be closed-ended. You can't shatter a plate of glass with sound (nowhere for the sound waves to resonate). Please see http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/feb98/887203231.Ph.r.html.

Kevin Hall

More mistakes in CSI: NY
More quotes from CSI: NY
More trivia for CSI: NY

Chosen answer: Probably to broaden the scope of the show's plot and give the audience a chance to see the characters in a different setting, People act differently at home from the way they do at their workplace. By the ninth season, the characters would have become overly familiar and predictable. It gives the writers a chance to do something different with them.

raywest

More questions & answers from CSI: NY

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.