The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory (2007)

2 corrected entries in The Tangerine Factor

(13 votes)

The Tangerine Factor - S1-E17

Corrected entry: Penny storms into Sheldon and Leonard's apartment to throw her boyfriend's iPod out of their window and yell at her boyfriend who has just left. Raj then finds the iPod on his way in. However, according to the layout of the building with the front door being to the left of the elevator, the front side of their apartment building would be on Penny's side, so she should have thrown it out of her own apartment window. The window through Sheldon and Leonard's apartment would lead to the back.

07marsh

Correction: There's no indication from the scene that she's catching him as he is stepping out the door. He could have had his car parked behind the building and was on his way round to the front.

Jay32183

The Tangerine Factor - S1-E17

Corrected entry: When Penny and Leonard are talking to Sheldon about their date, Sheldon refers to Schrodinger's Cat, stating "The cat in the box is both alive and dead, until you open the box and find out." Yet the precise point of the Schrodinger's Cat example is that the cat cannot be both alive and dead. Schrodinger was arguing against physicists of the time who claimed that certain subatomic particles were special and could be in opposite states at the same time; his argument was that you can't make small systems special because a large and obvious system (e.g., the cat) could always be made to depend on the state of the smaller one, and for a large and obvious system to be in opposite states simultaneously is ridiculous. Now, this is pretty obscure and the misunderstanding of Schrodinger's Cat experiment is widespread, but this is Sheldon we're talking about.

Moose

Correction: This is not a factual error on Sheldon's part. He explicitly says that Schrodinger's experiment was an attempt to explain the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, which implies that the cat could be both dead and alive until the box is opened and observed. While he doesn't explain that the point of the experiment was to critique the prevailing thought of the time, his overall point to Penny fits within the context as given.

The Excelsior Acquisition - S3-E16

Plot hole: In Series 1, Episode 7, "The Dumpling Paradox, " Sheldon makes an oblique reference to his financial status: "Frankly, if I could afford the rent, I'd ask you [Leonard] to leave, " meaning he cannot pay the rent on his two bedroom apartment by himself - not that he doesn't want to, he can't. However, in "The Execlsior Acquisition, " we find that he does not even cash his pay cheques. He doesn't even deposit them into a bank account - he leaves them in a drawer in his desk. In Series 2 Episode 14 "The Financial Permeability", he lends Penny a large amount of money from a huge bankroll he just happens to have lying about - again, without cashing his pay cheques! He is obviously independently wealthy. Either he doesn't have enough money to afford the rent or he has enough to work without being paid while practically giving large amounts of cash away. Can't be both.

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Suggested correction: Not being able to afford doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have the money, especially a man like Sheldon. He works with a budget and he sticks to it. In his budget he has a certain amount set aside for rent, anything more than that and he can't afford it alone.

Nonsense. If he was sticking to a "rigid budget" he wouldn't have even thought of lending a hopeless credit risk like Penny a single cent. Instead he throws a huge bankroll at her without even discussing a repayment plan.

Rubbish, I stick to a strict budget but still have the money to lend to close friends. Like Penny is to him.

He might have different budgets for different things. People could get a higher margin because they could be of more use to the scientific mind of Sheldon.

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Chosen answer: The song is called "Dark as a Dungeon" and was written and first performed by singer-songwriter Merle Travis in 1946. It has been performed by a wide array of artists, including Tennessee Ernie Ford, Harry Belafonte, Dolly Parton, Queens of the Stone Age, Kathy Mattea and Amy Grant. But it was made most famous when it was performed and recorded by Johnny Cash during his concert at Folsom Prison in 1968. According to Wikipedia: "It is a lament about the danger and drudgery of being a coal miner in an Appalachian shaft mine. It has become a rallying song among miners seeking improved working conditions."

Michael Albert

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