Numb3rs

Noisy Edge - S1-E12

Factual error: In the beginning of the episode, Charlie is stating that "there is always a solution" and "if there's any limitation it's got to be in the mathematician, not the math". Unfortunately, according to Kurt Godel's incompleteness theorems, this is not true. Simply put, there are mathematical problems that cannot be proven/solved.

Counterfeit Reality - S1-E7

Factual error: The Secret Service agent says the bills are counterfeit because you can see the watermark under a uv light, which is completely wrong. The uv reactive strip is not a watermark, it's a plastic strip embedded between the two layers of the bill and fluoresces under uv as a security measure. In older bills, it glows blue as in the film. In newer ones, it glows yellow to orange and is on the right half of the bill. A fake bill would be the one that does not glow. (00:07:20)

zephalis

In Plain Sight - S2-E8

Factual error: During the scene when Megan and the FBI are making the house entry, a scene cuts to two FBI agents, one with a M4 and another with a MP5. The agent with the MP5 has the magazine in his weapon installed backwards. (00:05:10)

Dirty Bomb - S1-E10

Factual error: Season 1, Episode 10, "Dirty Bomb": The opening figures refer to "500g of Nuclear Material." These are the wrong units to determine the hazard level in a radiological sample. The "Curie content" describes, roughly, how much radiation will be given off, and is not tied directly to the sample's mass. 500g of Cesium-137 (the isotope being discussed in the episode) could well be less radioactive than 1g of a different isotope.

Rooster of Doom

Harvest - S2-E14

Factual error: In one episode, there is a chase with the suspect driving an ambulance. The chase ends when the ambulance runs into and flips over a motionless taxi perpendicular to it, killing the suspect. There's no way this could happen, because at those speeds the impact would make the taxi flip over if anything.

Prime Suspect - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: When Charlie Epps is writing a quadrillion on the whiteboard, the writing alternates between shots. Most noticably when he first writes it down, there is a significant downward tendency of the 000 groups. In the next shot, they are pretty much horizontal. Also the shapes of the commas alter.

Ronnie Bischof

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Trivia: Judd Hirsch is an astro-physicist and can actually do the math Charlie does on the show. He caught the acting bug in school and chose that over physics.

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Power - S4-E12

Question: In a few episodes, the FBI agents will walk into a room and say "smell that?" and the reply is "shots fired", supposedly because they can smell the distinct odor of burnt gunpowder. Then they'll look behind a desk and find a dead body in a pool of blood. But wouldn't the smell of a dead person, or the blood, be way more overpowering? Or would it take too long for a dead body to start to smell? And how long would the smell of gunfire in an enclosed room last?

Bishop73

Answer: It takes 24-48 hours before a decaying body begins producing a decaying odor. It takes a number of days for it to intensify enough to be immediately noticeable when walking into a room.

raywest

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