History Main / AccidentallyAccurate

* ''TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'': It's CommonKnowledge that diamond is overall the hardest natural substance on earth; what only a relatively small handful of people know, however, is that for all that durability, diamond is astonishingly brittle. It is, in fact, not only possible, but surprisingly easy to take a hammer and chisel to a large chunk of the stone for the purposes of breaking off smaller fragments suitable for either jewelery or industrial purposes. So when Jimmy baited a T-Rex into slamming headlong into an enormous stone to get a smaller one suitable for his jury-rigged time travel remote, in the episode ''Sorry, Wrong Era''? Not only is that possible, but completely and utterly plausible; the show uses unabashedly wrong and fictional science just because it coasts along on both RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny, so chances are good that the writers behind the show didn't do their homework this time either.

* In Tom Lehrer's song the Masochism Tango it was the Masochist not the Sadist who was in control of the relationship; which is actually how it works in real life. However Tom Lehrer probably didn't know that.

* ''TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron'': It's CommonKnowledge that diamond is overall the hardest natural substance on earth; what only a relatively small handful of people know, however, is that for all that durability, diamond is astonishingly brittle. It is, in fact, not only possible, but surprisingly easy to take a hammer and chisel to a large chunk of the stone for the purposes of breaking off smaller fragments suitable for either jewelery or industrial purposes. So when Jimmy baited a T-Rex into slamming headlong into an enormous stone to get a smaller one suitable for his jury-rigged time travel remote, in the episode ''Sorry, Wrong Era''? Not only would that be plausible, but completely and utterly possible; the show uses unabashedly wrong and fictional science just because it coasts along on both RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny.

* TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron: It's Common Knowledge that diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, but what few people realize is that diamond is also very brittle, at least compared to it's overall toughness, meaning it's easier than you'd think to shatter a diamond using a hammer. So in the time travel episode "Time Is Money", Jimmy shattering the ginormous diamond by tricking a T-rex into charging into it is completely plausible, even though the writers probably DidNotDoTheResearch.

** Although this isn't really {{DidNotDoTheResearch}}, as the research wasn't available.

* It's unlikely that Maria Nayler was talking about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_Logic boolean logic]] when she sang the line "one and one still is one" in Robert Miles' "One & One", but she hits the nail on the head.

* The play Abigail's Party makes a humourous reference to putting red wine (beaujolais) in the fridge, as a comment of misguided middle class aspirations in the 70s. However, playwright Mike Leigh later learnt that beaujolais is one of the few red wines that is best when refridgerated.

** MST3K also plays on this, as dolphins attack the Sattelite of Love with interplanetary dolphin warships.
* TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron: It's CommonKnowledge that diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, but what few people realize is that diamond is also very brittle, at least compared to it's overall toughness, meaning it's easier than you'd think to shatter a diamond using a hammer. So in the time travel episode "Time Is Money", Jimmy shattering the ginormous diamond by tricking a t-rex into charging into it is completely plausible, even though the writers probably DidNotDoTheResearch.

** 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.

*** Actually, Deinonychus is in the subfamily "Velociraptorinae". And could be taken to be the Dromaeosauridae featured. Although it isn't "velociraptor" and the paleontologist characters should have know that.
**** However, 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.

* It's unlikely that Maria Nayler was talking about [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitwise_operation bitwise operation]] when she sang the line "one and one still is one" in Robert Miles' "One & One", but she hits the nail on the head.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutron: It's CommonKnowledge that diamond is the hardest natural substance on earth, but what few people realize is that diamond is also very brittle, at least compared to it's overall toughness, meaning it's easier than you'd think to shatter a diamond using a hammer. So Jimmy shattering the diamond by tricking a t-rex into charging into it is completely plausible, even though the writers probably DidNotDoTheResearch.

* Gulliver's travel mentions two moons of Mars. Years later Phobos and Deimos were discovered, which also had the same trajectory as mentioned in the book.

This is an subversion of DidNotDoTheResearch. An audience filled with too much CommonKnowledge will know the writers are completely wrong. Anyone who actually researches the subject will discover the writers accidentally stumbled across some accuracy.

In other words, this is when on the surface, it appears that the author got it wrong, but some research will show that the author got it right--by total accident.

* Dolphins are frequently given an AlternativeCharacterInterpretation as violent, venal and murderous animals, unlike their "actual" gentle and caring personality. As anyone who has studied dolphin behavior can tell you, [[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n3_v154/ai_21003387/ this interpretation is truer]] [[http://www.miaminewtimes.com/1993-09-01/news/the-flap-over-flipper/ than you might believe]]. It's not clear which, if any, writers knew this when they used it.
** ''The Simpsons'' did this in "Treehouse of Horror XI".
** ''The Pet Professional'' also did this.
** As did {{Dr McNinja}}.

** As did {{Dr. McNinja}}.

If research not available at the time of the writing proves them right, that's a case of ScienceMarchesOn, not this trope. If the theory would never have been accepted by researchers working in whatever field (e.g. Professor Alexander Abian's theory that we should blow up the moon to stop Typhus), it's just the writers fertilizing some EpilepticTrees. Compare: RightForTheWrongReasons.