History Main / IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect

* Parodied in ''{{Futurama}}'': A giant asteroid of garbage is about to hit the city. Professor Farnsworth has arranged the construction of ''another'' ball of garbage to be fired at the asteroid to deflect it, and declares that if his calculations are correct, the two balls should collide. Not to be outdone, his archrival Dr. Wernstrom declares "And if ''my'' calculations are correct, we're all going to die horribly!" and laughs - until he realizes what this means for him personally, [[MadeMyselfSad at which point his laughter dies away quite quickly]].

* Riff of ''SluggyFreelance'' uses an after-the-fact version of this, reaching into his coat and muttering, "Let me check my notes," immediately after one of his inventions goes horribly awry.

* Spoofed in the LeeroyJenkins video, where the calculations being performed were clearly an AssPull.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Subverted in ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where the calculations are ''[[HopeSpot wrong]]'' and the ThemeMusicPowerUp cuts off.
** In actually, the calculations were completely correct. The shield was neutralizing all damage done with 100% probability. However, the bad guys were throwing enough PLANETS at them that probability itself bent and they took damage. Follows the trope right afterwards when [[spoiler:Genome calculates that they can fire at EVERYTHING in the near past and near future in order to hit the Anti-spiral ships. They do.]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* ComicBook/{{Tintin}}: in ''Explorers of the Moon'', Calculus is hoping that his device will prevent the rocket to crash against a meteor. Otherwise he would have to "redo all his calculations !"
* ''ComicStrip/LeonardLeGenie'' does this occasionally, usually adding arrogantly that they always are. Once, he 'proved' they are correct by checking a randomly chosen part of his long calculation and verifying it. The chosen part? 1 + 1 = 2

[[folder:Film]]

* Spoofed in TheMovie of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000''; after attempting to escape from the ship by tunneling out (in ''space''), Crow declares, "Hey, I calculated the odds this would succeed versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid, and... I went ahead anyway."

* {{Tintin}}: in ''Explorers of the Moon'', Calculus is hoping that his device will prevent the rocket to crash against a meteor. Otherwise he would have to "redo all his calculations !"
* ''LeonardLeGenie'' does this occasionally, usually adding arrogantly that they always are. Once, he 'proved' they are correct by checking a randomly chosen part of his long calculation and verifying it. The chosen part? 1 + 1 = 2

-->'''NERV Leutenant:''' Actually according to my calculations we only have about ten hours until penetration.

* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonColosseum Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness]]'', one of the ordinary Cipher {{Mooks}} always quotes probabilities, which are clearly just pulled out of thin air. Although the one about how likely the player is to wreck their plans if not stopped seemed pretty accurate.

* In the ''AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' episode "Food for Thought", pilgrim Simon uses an abacus to calculate the groups chances of survival, beginning each announcement with "According to my calculations..."

** It's important to remember, however, that in a continuous event space, 100% probability does not guarantee certainty. As an example, if you're told to pick any real number at random with a uniform distribution between zero and one, the chance that you'll pick exactly 0.2544 is 0 (because there are infinitely many real numbers between 0 and 1, and they're all equally probably). However, it's still possible for you to pick exactly 0.2544.

* In ''[[ThreeTwoOneContact The Bloodhound Gang]]'' story, "The Case of the Dark Night," the young kid member of the gang member explains he calculated how much gas a car that does 14 MPG would need to start up and run out after going around 5 ft, 4 teaspoons. With this being a trap for car thieves using Mr. Bloodhound's antique car as bait (and this being an educational series) he has all the incentive necessary to get that right. As it happens, the trap works perfectly: the crooks go the expected distance, which is just enough to incriminate themselves to the waiting police officers.

-->--'''Emmet "Doc" Brown,''' '''''Film/BackToTheFuture'''''

* Bently says this when figuring out a code for one of the safes in the first ''SlyCooper'' game, then adding: "They are always correct." While he never screws up combinations, his calculations ''are'' sometimes off in later games, hitting unforeseen security. This does not hurt his confidence any.

* In ''[[ThreeTwoOneContact The Bloodhound Gang]]'' story, "The Case of the Dark Night," the young kid member of the gang member explains he calculated how much gas a car that does 14 MPG would need to start up and run out after going around 5 ft, 4 teaspoons. With this being a trap for car thieves using Mr. Bloodhound's antique car as bait (and this being an educational series) he has all the incentive necessary to get that right. As it happens, the trap works perfectly: the crooks go the expected distance, which just enough to incriminate themselves to the waiting police officers.

* In ''[[ThreeTwoOneContact The Bloodhound Gang]]'' story, "The Case of the Dark Night," the young kid member of the gang member explains how much he worked how much gas a car that does 14 MPG would need to start up and run out after going around 5 ft, 4 teaspoons. With this being a trap for car thieves using Mr. Bloodhound's antique car as bait (and this being an educational series) he has all the incentive to get that right.

Stock phrase and verbal shortcut used by [[TheSmartGuy intellectual types]] in shows with any sort of scientific theme. It denotes that whatever statement it references is, in fact, a carefully assembled construct of reason, probability, and logic instead of, say, an AssPull, while still allowing for the writer-friendly possibility that something might GoHorriblyWrong.

Incidentally, the chances of the calculations actually ''being'' correct are roughly equal to the percentage of episode shown at the point it's said. [[BadassBookworm Unless it]]'s [[IronMan Tony Stark]] or [[{{Foundation}} Hari Seldon]], or [[Film/BackToTheFuture Doc Brown]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBeatles'' eopisode "Mr. Moonlight" has the boys following Professor Ludwig Von Brilliant to a native island to see a lunar eclipse. He's a bit daffy, but he was right about his calculations as to when the eclipse starts.

-->--Doc Brown, ''Film/BackToTheFuture''

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Used by Dr. Arne Magnusson in ''HalfLife 2: Episode Two'', as a way to further emphasize just how hopelessly self-important the character is. He even tacks on, "and I have no reason to doubt myself."

* PinkyAndTheBrain has a subversion: while the duo are parachuting Brain says "If my calculations are correct, which they always are, we will land directly on the roof". His calculations ''are'' correct in terms of their landing, but he failed to take into account the fact that the roof was covered in ice, so they slide right off.

* The ''Film/IronMan'' movie has [[IronMan Tony Stark]] finishing his first miniature Arc Reactor. His assistant Yinsen asks how much power it could generate, and Tony begins his reply with "If my math is right -- and it always is...", which is followed by an absurd power level that could easily generate enough electricity for a small country.

* The ''Film/IronMan'' movie: [[IronMan Tony Stark]] has just finished his first miniature Arc Reactor. Yinsen asks how much power it could generate, and Tony begins his reply with "If my math is right -- and it always is..."