Character mistake: In the epilogue, Charlie illustrates the relationship of mathematics to real life by discussing the golden ratio and its presence in a host of real-life situations, including the shape of a nautilus shell and the distribution of petals in a flower. These claims are disputed by some mathematicians (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio#Nature), and the one about the nautilus shell one is untrue (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_spiral#Spirals_in_nature). It's possible Charlie is just repeating what he has read or heard without investigating it for himself, but this is uncharacteristic of him.
Numb3rs (2005)
1 mistake in Sabotage
Starring: Judd Hirsch, David Krumholtz, Rob Morrow, Alimi Ballard
Amita Ramanujan: Charlie, where did you learn all this stuff about assassination?
Charlie Eppes: If I told you that I'd have to kill you.
Amita Ramanujan: Okay, seriously.
Charlie Eppes: Seriously.
Trivia: Judd Hirsch is an astro-physicist and can actually do the math Charlie does on the show. He caught the acting bug in school and chose that over physics.
More questions & answers from Numb3rs
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: Craps is a casino game where players bet on the outcome of a dice roll. It deals heavily with probabilities and is a favorite of math experts like Charlie. Whatever the odds, though, your chances of winning are much greater than winning the lottery.
If you bet against the roller in craps, your odds of winning are about 49%, which is as good as you get in Vegas. The point he's making (though it's pretty obscure) is that if you're going to bet, you may as well bet on something where you have a slim chance of winning, as opposed to the lottery, where your chances are basically 0.