About.com Rating



Original Air Date: April 21, 2008

Plotlines

The guys convince Sheldon to join their Physics Bowl team. However, he doesn't understand the concept of teamwork, so tries to answer all of the questions, thus ruining the fun. When they finally kick him off the team and replace him with his nemesis, Leslie Winkle, he decides to start a vendetta against them. He decides to face them single-handed, but the rules require that he have a full team of four.

But when one of his filler teammates has the answer to the final question, Sheldon prefers to lose than accept any help.

The Episode's Science

Giant Magnetoresistance: One of the questions in the Physics Bowl practice is about the quantum effect behind modern computer hard drives. The answer is giant magnetoresistance, a scientific discovery that earned the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for the scientists key in discovering it, French physicist Albert Fert and German physicist Peter Gruenberg.

Frame Dragging: In his theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein described a universe that was set against a coordinate system of inter-related space and time, called spacetime. One element of this universe is that as objects rotate in spacetime, they distort it a bit. This can be oversimplified by picturing a rotating ball within a liquid, in which the rotation would drag the water along with it due to friction. The similar phenomenon in relativity is called frame dragging.

Quantum Computers - One of the questions in the physics bowl is about how quantum computers can factor large numbers.

This is done using Shor's algorithm, which was formulated in 1994 by mathematician 1994. In principle, Shor's algorithm allows you to calculate the prime factors of a very large number, which causes some people to be concerned about the possibility of using quantum computers to break computer encryption techniques, which are dependent upon large numbers that are the product of two primes but which convention (i.e. non-quantum) computers are unable to factor in a reasonable amount of time.

Notable Quotes

Sheldon: You want me to use my intelligence in a tawdry competition? Would you ask Picasso to play Pictionary? Would you ask Noah Webster to play Boggle? Would you ask Jacques Cousteau to play Go Fish?

Penny: Okay, the first question is on the topic of optics. What is the shortest light pulse ever produced? Dr Cooper.
Sheldon: And of course, the answer is 130 adoseconds.
Penny: That is correct.
Leonard: I knew that too.
Penny: Good for you, sweetie. Okay, next question. What is the quantum mechanical effect used to encode data on hard disk drives? Howard.
Sheldon: And of course, the answer is giant magneto resistance.
Penny: Right.
Howard: Hey, I buzzed in.
Sheldon: But I answered, it’s called teamwork.
Howard: Don’t you think I should answer the engineering questions? I am an engineer.
Sheldon: By that logic I should answer all the anthropology questions because I’m a mammal.
Leonard: Just ask another one.
Penny: Okay. What artificial satellite has seen glimpses of Einsteins predicted frame dragging? (Raj buzzes.)
Sheldon: And of course it’s Gravity Probe B.

Howard: Okay, we’re going to need a strong fourth for our team.
Raj: You know who’s apparently very smart, is the girl who played TV’s Blossom. She got a PhD in neuroscience or something.
Leonard: Raj, we’re not getting TV’s Blossom to join our physics bowl team.
Raj: How about the girl from the Wonder Years?

Leonard: Howard, Raj and I just had a team meeting.
Sheldon: No you didn’t.
Leonard: Yes we did, I just came from it.
Sheldon: Okay, I don’t know where you just came from, but it couldn’t have been a team meeting because I’m on the team and I wasn’t there, ergo the team did not meet.
Leonard: Okay, let me try it this way, uh, I was at a coffee klatch with a couple of friends and one thing led to another and it turns out you’re off the team.
Sheldon: Why?
Leonard: Because you’re taking all the fun out of it.
Sheldon: Well, I’m sorry, is the winner of the physics bowl the team that has the most fun?
Leonard: Okay, let me try it this way, you’re annoying and no-one wants to play with you any more.
Sheldon: I see. Well. At this point I should inform you that I intend to form my own team and destroy the molecular bonds that bind your very matter together, and reduce the resulting particulate chaos to tears.

Gablehouser: Okay, well let’s jump right in, first question, for ten points. What is the isospan singlet partner of the Pi Zero Meson? (Buzz) PMS?
Leonard: The Eta Meson.

Gablehouser: Denied. Alright, for ten points, what is the lightest element on earth with no stable isotope. (Buzz) AA?
Sheldon: And of course, the answer is Technetium.
Gablehouser: Terrific. Next question, what is the force between two uncharged plates due to quantum vacuum fluctuation. (Buzz) PMS?
Raj: Sheldon can suck on, the Casimir Effect.
Gablehouser: Correct.
(Time shift)
Gablehouser: How does a quantum computer factor large numbers. (Buzz) PMS?
Leslie: Shor’s Algorithm.
Gablehouser: Correct.