Tuesday, December 09, 2008

I Don't Know Where To Begin With How Wrong This Picture Is

This picture makes Baby Linus Pauling weep. It's kind of like making Baby Jesus weep except that Linus Pauling wasn't made up. OK, I believe Jesus was a real person but I'm not so certain about that walking on water and infinite catering myth.

The picture is from the TV drama show Eleventh Hour which I haven't watched and probably won't if they can't get their sophomore year organic chemistry straight.

Starting from the top left and reading clockwise, let's analyze this molecule. The two H3C groups are acceptable. They are commonly know as methyl groups and they would hang off that single carbon like that. I'm fine with the carbon with two single bonds to the aforementioned methyl groups. I'm fine that it then has a double bond. I'm not fine with where the double bonds lead to. L is not an abbreviation on the periodic table so I'm thinking that's a capital I. Iodine would have only one bond. It certainly would not have 5 bonds. The carbon just below the iodine should have four bonds not one.
I'm comfortable with everything else until you get to the OH group with a double bond to the second to last carbon. The carbon has four bonds as expected. The oxygen however has three bonds where two would be expected.

Boron (B) should have 3 bonds or be part of a 6 bond co-ordination complex. Either way, it's wrong here. The O has two bonds but then that last carbon is missing either a bond or another hydrogen.

The only excuse for this would be if it's a description of a transition state for a very complex reaction. Otherwise this is just fucked up. Since I don't watch crappy TV which is basically any TV that pauses for a commercial break I haven't seen the full episode and have no idea what's going on in this picture. If I'm wrong in my critique here, let me know.

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2 Comments:

Blogger RicketyFunk said...

There's a show about that puzzle computer game sequel to the 7th guest? Maybe he's trying to all of the errors in the equation so he can unlock the room next door for more clues to uncover the secret behind the disappearing guests and their ghosts trapped in the hell mansion.

Either that or some prop asst on the show quickly jotted down some sort of equation for the scene. In the end, you're expecting too much from television.

Dec 9, 2008, 1:42:00 PM  
Blogger Dean ASC said...

No but I absolutely love movies about people who have to spend the night in a haunted house to inherit the family fortune.

I'm watching 13 ghosts right now!

Dec 9, 2008, 6:33:00 PM  

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