I hate the show The Big Bang Theory<\/i>. It is a stupid person’s idea of what smart people are like. But this kind of thing is hardly new. For years, I’ve been bugged by Star Trek<\/i>. For example, there was an episode in The Next Generation<\/i> where the surface temperature of some planet (or something) was minus 290 degrees Celsius. Or something. Regardless, it was some number of degrees below absolute zero. You would think these shows would have science advisers who would catch this kind of thing. And you would be half right: they have<\/i> science advisers but they don’t<\/i> catch this kind of thing.<\/p>\n
By far the most annoying Star Trek<\/i> science problem is Mr. Spock’s hyper-precision. He can’t say the temperature is 30 degrees; he has to say that it is “approximately” 32.14 degrees. This is okay when discussing something that can be stated that accurately, although adding that “approximately” really roils. But check out this scene from the episode “The Trouble With Tribbles”:<\/p>\n