How realistic is the science in game of thrones?
August 16, 2013
The final few episodes of game of thrones air »» with fans already pondering how the story of a teacher-turned-criminal drug mastermind will reach its denouement. But how many of these common science scenes reflect reality, asks chemist and physicist dr. Jonathan hare.
Spoiler alert: numerous plot details are revealed below
"Chemistry must be respected this is what walter white says.
Walt is a brilliant research chemist who must leave his job and pursue a career as a high school chemistry teacher.
Having learned
Because he was a chemistry teacher, there is a black streak when walt instructs jesse, as if he's still back in the classroom.Jesse did particularly poorly in school, but by "cooking" meth with walt, he'll come to understand and respect the chemistry that plays a significant role in a homemade product.
But like walt "lessons" pay the fare scientifically?
Can blue meth be pure meth?
Crystal meth, oh existing walt, is considered unusually transparent and also has a characteristic soft blue color. This is a useful storytelling device, but as usual, the color of a crystal does not indicate a pure or impure chemical compound. Impurities in minerals, and quartz crystal among them, can make it pink (rose quartz) or purple (amethyst), but usually the color is the result of how electrons in a substance absorb light, and does not become a specific indicator of purity.Poison gas
During scenes in a makeshift meth lab in the desert, walt is threatened by two gangsters. He improvises a way to gass them by throwing red phosphorus into hot water. Walt manages to escape, trapping the gangsters inside. He later explains to jesse that this reaction produced the poisonous gas phosphine. Red phosphorus can react with hydrogen to form phosphine, but not with the benefits of civilization. White phosphorus can react with sodium hydroxide (the chemical it would have), but you see it throwing out a red powder, not a white stuff. And this is not such a nuance that the document regulates jesse. I don't think this trick will work.
Dissolution bath
The gas only kills one of the gangsters. Walt musters up the courage to kill another, but in modern times he has a problem getting rid of the body. In a horror scene, jesse adds hydrofluoric acid (hf) to dissolve the body. This acid is useful to obtain in any laboratory due to its unusual chemical composition. It dissolves glass, so it must be stored in plastic (ptfe or teflon) bottles.
This is a powerful acid, but the biochemistry of hf makes it dissolve glass and body parts and not its super" strength". Alas, jesse is barred from walt's careful advice and does not use a specific type of plastic container (which would be hf resistant). He rather pours it into the bath. The remains of a partially dissolved body and tub crash into the half-dissolved ceiling.
Homemade battery
In another scene in the desert, walt and jesse "cook" when they have to drive home, rituals of lust alissa foxy eve sweet they find that the car battery is dead.Walt makes a makeshift and fairly simple battery out of acid, harmful elements and wires and explains to jesse the chemical composition.If you put two different metals in the acid (or even into an electrolyte solution such as sea water), difference: in pulp and paper activity between metals, it will create a voltage. This is a common electrochemical cell. A number of these cells, connected in series like a daisy chain, are called batteries.
Anyone who had tin amalgam fillings as a child remembers the strange sensation of accidentally putting a piece of aluminum candy wrapper in your mouth. Saliva acted as an electrolyte solution. The stuffing and the foil acted like two different metals and we were electrocuted by our own mouth battery. Walt's explanation is quite accurate, but unfortunately such a simple battery provides only a tiny amount of power needed to start the engine.
Mercury hulminate
Jesse was tricked and beaten up by the psychopathic gangster tuco. Walt confronts tuco in his office, offering him more crystals but insisting on immediate payment. Tuco gets angry, but walt has a plan.The bag of meth crystals he gave tuco was actually "mercury fulminate". He throws a crystal on the ground, which detonates, creating an almighty explosion. We see walt emerge triumphantly from the smoking remains, clutching a bag of financial circumstances. But could a small crystal really do so much harm?
Mercury grumminate is a very unstable and explosive compound, it is recommended to use it safely to get exactly like very small crystals, sometimes a school teacher is able to do this.
crystals larger than a few millimeters are not easy to handle. Snappits, a child's toy that you throw at work to create a small crack, contains a little bit of silver fulminate. Walt's crystals are large, and the bag with them will not be stable enough to be realistically stepped on and handled, as representatives of humanity see in the application. However, theoretically, you could create a very powerful explosion. But the shockwave would no doubt have blown up the other crystals in the bag next to tuco's desk. If walt and tuco miraculously survived the explosion, they would have heard nothing for a long time. Access to the warehouse of industrial chemicals. Walt describes the process they use - the thermite reaction - to jesse. Here you mix a metal oxide (eg iron oxide) with a reactive metal preparation (eg aluminum) and you get metallic iron and aluminum oxide. The reaction temperature is extremely high, and it can be used for welding railways or burning a castle. The science is right here, and the episode is memorable for jesse and walt fumbling and tripping while trying to carry barrels of chemicals besides rolling them.
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