History Main / ArtisticLicenseChemistry

* One episode of ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' ("The Straw Woman") had a reverend die when his cape mysteriously caught fire. [[spoiler: It turned out that the killer had drenched it in a solution of phosphorous in toluene, which started to burn, when the toluene had evaporated. However, toluene has a strong gasoline-like smell, which the reverend would have noticed, and furthermore the evaporation would take heat from the surroundings, making the cape icy cold and near-impossible to wear.]]

* Mega-teetotal Christian churches from around the time of Prohibition onward maintain that all of Literature/TheBible's references to wine, except those verses condemning drunkenness specifically, refer only to unfermented grape juice. They literally expect Jesus to turn water into grape juice. But in the days before modern refrigeration and pasteurization, grape juice would begin to ferment almost immediately after being pressed, since grape skins are naturally covered in yeast.

* There's a very old (pre WWII at least) conspiracy theory that suggests putting fluoride in the water supply is part of some secret plot to poison everyone. This is likely because fluorine in its elemental form actually ''is'' very poisonous and dangerous. Once it combines to form a compound however, said compounds are not necessarily dangerous (e.g., duct tape is mostly made of fluorine and is harmless).

* Gold commonly emits "glow" lines in cartoons to denote its shine. But some animators made gold objects ''actually glow'', like in the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToons'' episode "Journey To The Center Of Acme Acres".

** On an episode, Homer was being coaxed to memorize the periodic table, to which he responds that he'll just write it on his arm. The response: "Including all KNOWN lanthanides and actinides? Good luck!" Finding new lanthanides and actinides is impossible, like [[ComicBook/TheInvisibles finding new letters in the alphabet]]. Blame Glenn Seaborg and co, who filled in most of that gap of the periodic table in the '50s. The last was found in the 1960s, so perhaps the writer was just a baby-boomer who hadn't kept up with developments.
** Parodied in the episode "Lisa Gets an 'A'," where Bart's classroom had a periodic table "sponsored by Oscar Meyer" with Bolognium (atomic weight: "delicious" or "snacktacular").
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': On one episode the MacGuffin is an element called "Pizazzium Infinionite," which is shown on the periodic table as element 104. In real life this spot is already taken by rutherfordium, which is significantly less cool than Pizazzium apparently is. The show uses "Pizazzium" and "Pizazzium Infinionite" interchangeably. In reality, "Pizazzium Infinionite", if it existed, would be a ''compound'' made up of Pizazzium atoms/ions and whatever element(s) "Infinionite" atoms/ions are composed of (and therefore does not belong on a periodic table of ''elements'').
* An {{Anvilicious}} episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' featured a naturally occurring lake of electrum, a substance which inexplicably rendered Transformers invulnerable when they coated themselves with it. Not only would electrum be useless for this purpose, but no such mixture of gold and silver could be a liquid at normal outdoor temperatures. Hence, the pretty woodland glade which [[GreenAesop gets trashed in the quest for invulnerability]] should've been flash-fried long before the robots discovered it.
* In the pilot miniseries of ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'', D'Compose is freed from a massive chunk of amber, then later trapped in a pit of liquid amber and re-imprisoned. While real amber softens and gets sticky when heated, it generally catches fire before it reaches its melting point. If the Redwoods had called their trap a ''resin'' pit, it wouldn't be this trope; as it is, you'd think a bunch of walking trees would know the difference between solid amber and liquid pine resin.
* ''Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse''. Kryptonite is {{Unobtainium}} and, to an extent, can behave however the writers want. But it's still a radioactive mineral.
** In the Franchise/DCAnimatedUniverse movie ''Superman & Batman: World's Finest'', dissolving kryptonite in acid means it's "disappeared", and Superman is back to full strength. In the real world, dissolving radioactive isotopes in acid leaves you with a radioactive acid.
** In the same scene, Joker releases Joker Gas from vents in the ceiling. While it too is a fictional material, it's typically depicted as being heavier than air and thus fills a room from the ground up. In this scene, however, it instead acts as if it's lighter than air so the cloud of gas stays up at the ceiling.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce'', Quartz (in RealLife, silicon dioxide -- you may have encountered it in its common form of ''sand'') is apparently very useful for both Time Travel and FTL Wormholes. Well, it does make pretty mystical-looking crystals...
* In ''WesternAnimation/MarvelsSpiderMan'', Harry and Spidey both decide to use silver jewelry to thaw the latter out of HarmlessFreezing due to its high thermal conductivity. This apparently means the silver generates enough heat on contact to ''sublimate'' the ice without harm to Spider-Man's person.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', pure platinum is described as being the one metal that's immune to metalbending. Reasonable by itself, but in-universe characters use metal chains to hold metalbenders and even [[spoiler: build a HumongousMecha composed almost entirely of the stuff]]. In reality, platinum is a very soft metal, not as soft as gold but far less than steel or titanium. Trying to use it as armor, as many things in the show do, would just make them extremely vulnerable to anything that isn't an attempt to metalbend it or even cause it to collapse and deform under its own weight, but instead it's shown functioning as being some sort of nearly-impervious substance.
* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'': To get Jasper's attention, Cruella yanks a bottle of what appears to be wine that he's drinking from out of his hands and flings it into the lit fireplace behind her, where it shatters and then explodes with a loud bang. Wine doesn't have enough alcohol in it to burn, even if aerosolized.

* FlamingMeteor: Rocks and ice don't burn, they melt, and the glow of a meteor is the air being super-pressurized.

** An ''ComicBook/AdventureComics'' 1947 issue has ComicBook/{{Superboy}} help a friend win a contest to show off the most valuable specimen of whatever. The rich kid brings diamonds, which Superboy tops with several tons of pitchblende. Even though the judge proclaims the pitchblende victorious because it's an ore of extremely valuable uranium and radium, there's no acknowledgement of the corollary: It's dangerously radioactive. The comics-medicine blog Polite Dissent [[http://www.politedissent.com/archives/4850 ran the numbers]] and concluded that the contestant and judge standing next to the rock for even a few minutes had a poor chance of surviving their radiation poisoning, while cancer rates were measurably increased for everyone else in the room. Not to worry; Superboy himself would be just fine.

* The Series/{{CSI}} episode "Fur And Loathing" is already known by [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom furries]] for its woefully inaccurate portrayal of the fandom. One of the most criticized scenes is the moment in which the fandom is in a party and people start having sex with eachother. A glance at the materials of which most high-quality expensive fur suits are made of already reveals that such a thing would result into a massive series of deaths due to heat exhaustion.

* In ''Literature/TheCinderSpires'' [[FantasyGunControl guns aren't used]] because iron and steel that aren't protected by copper rapidly rust and decay due to some property of the atmosphere. Right idea, wrong metal. Unlike zinc, which ''is'' widely used to keep iron from corroding, copper will make iron rust ''faster'' in a corrosive environment, unless the copper layer is too thick for the corrosive stuff to get to the iron underneath. Making it so thick is impractical due to cost and weight, and availability of much better anticorrosive treatments.

* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': In "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E12Ghosts Ghosts]]", sulfuric acid is shown being dispensed from a plastic bottle. Sulfuric acid at a concentration high enough to accomplish what Rachel is attempting would oxidize the carbon in the plastic and should only be stored in glass or ceramic containers.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': Rey tells us that BB-8 has a selenium drive, which is a tip of the cap to Galaxy Quest's Beryllium Sphere, whether it was intended to be or not.

* ''ComicBook/AdventureComics'': A 1947 issue has ComicBook/{{Superboy}} help a friend win a contest to show off the most valuable specimen of whatever. The rich kid brings diamonds, which Superboy tops with several tons of pitchblende. Even though the judge proclaims the pitchblende victorious because it's an ore of extremely valuable uranium and radium, there's no acknowledgement of the corollary: It's dangerously radioactive. The comics-medicine blog Polite Dissent [[http://www.politedissent.com/archives/4850 ran the numbers]] and concluded that the contestant and judge standing next to the rock for even a few minutes had a poor chance of surviving their radiation poisoning, while cancer rates were measurably increased for everyone else in the room. Not to worry; Superboy himself would be just fine.

* Kenneth Oppel's ''Literature/{{Airborn}}'' series features a fictional element known as Hydrium, which is used as a super-efficient lifting gas for [[airships ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld]]. It's stated to be lighter than hydrogen, which is impossible-- the reason hydrogen is the lightest element is because it consists of a single proton and a single electron.

* Probably a joke, considering it's ''Film/MarsAttacks''... The Martians must wear space helmets while on Earth because they breathe nitrogen rather than oxygen. However, not only is nitrogen inert, and therefore a poor choice as a gas to breathe, but it's the most plentiful gas in the Earth's atmosphere -- i.e. there's more nitrogen than oxygen. The presence of free oxygen in the atmosphere and potential oxidization of their lungs isn't the problem, since a spy is able to get by in the atmosphere by chewing nitrogen-infused gum.

** Regardless of the concentration of methane in farts, it it odourless. In fact, an odourant has to be added to natural gas (which is mainly methane) to make it detectable in the event of a gas leak. The smell of farts is mainly caused by volatile sulphur compounds (mainly hydrogen sulphide, methanethiol and dimethyl sulphide, in order of abundance) which make up less than 1% of the total volume of flatus. In fact, where you find methane-producing archaea you usually find hydrogen sulphide-producing bacteria due to both types of microorganism being anaerobic.