Accidentally Accurate: Difference between revisions
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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Removed TVT control freakery, removed commented out non-examples that left empty sections. Fixed links and redlinks. Copyedits.) |
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== Film == |
== Film == |
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* [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|Any paleontologist watching]] ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' could, among other things, [[Dan Browned|call out the movie]] for its depiction of velociraptors as man-sized monsters when ''real'' raptors were about the size of turkeys. Only two years prior to the movie's release, however, paleontologists discovered ''Utahraptor'', which really ''was'' about the size of the raptors in the movie. And at the time the book was written, Gregory Paul had proposed reclassifying Deinonychus as ''Velociraptor antirrhopus'', believing the species to be similar enough to ''Velociraptor mongoliensis'' to justify it being a different species in the same genus, rather than in its own genus. Crichton chose to follow Paul's nomenclature, rather than the standard. |
* [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|Any paleontologist watching]] ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' could, among other things, [[Dan Browned|call out the movie]] for its depiction of velociraptors as man-sized monsters when ''real'' raptors were about the size of turkeys. Only two years prior to the movie's release, however, paleontologists discovered ''Utahraptor'', which really ''was'' about the size of the raptors in the movie. And at the time the book was written, Gregory Paul had proposed reclassifying Deinonychus as ''Velociraptor antirrhopus'', believing the species to be similar enough to ''Velociraptor mongoliensis'' to justify it being a different species in the same genus, rather than in its own genus. Crichton chose to follow Paul's nomenclature, rather than the standard. |
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* The creators of ''[[Ice Age]]'' made Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, as a joke. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/03/141997834/scientists-unveil-fossil-of-saber-toothed-squirrel-that-lived-among-dinos Recently, scientists unearthed a sabre-toothed squirrel.] |
* The creators of ''[[Ice Age]]'' made Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel, as a joke. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/11/03/141997834/scientists-unveil-fossil-of-saber-toothed-squirrel-that-lived-among-dinos Recently, scientists unearthed a sabre-toothed squirrel.] |
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== Literature == |
== Literature == |
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== Mathematics == |
== Mathematics == |
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* One theory about [[Fermat's Last Theorem]] is that Fermat's proof was actually wrong, but the results were correct anyway. In fact, this is almost universally believed within the mathematical community. Fermat always ''did'' turn out to have a proof when he said he did, so it's likely that he at least ''thought'' he could prove this. But given the insane complexity of Andrew Wiles's proof, very few mathematicians believe that 17th century mathematics could have produced any solution at all, much less a simple one. Both of the theorems Wiles' used to make his proof were twentieth-century in origin. Also, the theorem holds the record for the most ''wrong'' proofs. |
* One theory about [[Fermat's Last Theorem]] is that Fermat's proof was actually wrong, but the results were correct anyway. In fact, this is almost universally believed within the mathematical community. Fermat always ''did'' turn out to have a proof when he said he did, so it's likely that he at least ''thought'' he could prove this. But given the insane complexity of Andrew Wiles's proof, very few mathematicians believe that 17th century mathematics could have produced any solution at all, much less a simple one. Both of the theorems Wiles' used to make his proof were twentieth-century in origin. Also, the theorem holds the record for the most ''wrong'' proofs. |
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** And it's not just the complexity of the proof that's a limiting factor here - Fermat only knew about as much math as a ''seventh grade child''. Repeated attempts to prove the theorem with math that basic failed, which made people throughout history despair that there was no proof. |
** And it's not just the complexity of the proof that's a limiting factor here - Fermat only knew about as much math as a ''seventh grade child''. Repeated attempts to prove the theorem with math that basic failed, which made people throughout history despair that there was no proof. |
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== Music == |
== Music == |
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== Science == |
== Science == |
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* The Greek philosopher Leucippus created the atomic theory, as an argument against another philosopher, Parmenides. While Parmenidies argued against the idea that a state of nothingness could exist, Leucippus argued that there were in fact voids and that everything that was not a void was made of small units of matter that assembled to create larger ones. Aristotle scoffed at the argument, stating that in a complete absence of matter, motion would no longer encounter friction and allow for infinite speeds, which he saw as ridiculous. Well, turns out that what Aristotle used to try and discredit the theory is pretty close to what actually occurs to objects in motion in space. |
* The Greek philosopher Leucippus created the atomic theory, as an argument against another philosopher, Parmenides. While Parmenidies argued against the idea that a state of nothingness could exist, Leucippus argued that there were in fact voids and that everything that was not a void was made of small units of matter that assembled to create larger ones. Aristotle scoffed at the argument, stating that in a complete absence of matter, motion would no longer encounter friction and allow for infinite speeds, which he saw as ridiculous. Well, turns out that what Aristotle used to try and discredit the theory is pretty close to what actually occurs to objects in motion in space. |
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* The [[wikipedia:Infinite monkey theorem|infinite monkey theorem]] states that [[Monkeys on a Typewriter|a monkey typing randomly at a keyboard]] will type out the complete works of William Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time. |
* The [[wikipedia:Infinite monkey theorem|infinite monkey theorem]] states that [[Monkeys on a Typewriter|a monkey typing randomly at a keyboard]] will type out the complete works of William Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time. |
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** More generally, he'll type out every book that has ever been written or ''ever will be''. |
** More generally, he'll type out every book that has ever been written or ''ever will be''. |
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== [[Stand Up Comedy]] == |
== [[Stand Up Comedy]] == |
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[[Category:Trivia Trope]] |
[[Category:Trivia Trope]] |
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[[Category:Accidentally Accurate]] |
[[Category:Accidentally Accurate]] |
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[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]] |
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