The fake scientist who made it into a textbook

Who exactly is Claude Emile Jean-Baptiste Litre? That name sure rings a bell, huh?
This video was originally my contribution to a much larger collaboration. 60 creators, 60 seconds each, go give it a watch: • Another Minute Remaining
I'm on sites! :
/ bobbybroccole
/ bobbybroccoli

[@rodrigograss3580]

Gotta love the daughter name "Millie" hahahahaha

[@BobbyBroccoli]

When the original prank got published, people in on the joke wrote in and provided "additional new info" for the biography. That was one of the submissions

[@DrZaius3141]

@Reptilian Shapeshifter You're confusing him with his older half-brother Hector. He was the drunk and Centi was known to be quite moderate and measured when consuming alcohol.

[@thexbigxgreen]

Ahh holy shit that got past me the first time haha

[@madmax82988]

@@BobbyBroccoli 77

[@capybaralover.27]

@@DrZaius3141 j

[@Jaygorian1]

I clicked this to put as interesting background while I worked on something else. And, having watched some of your other vids, was surprised and confused that the entire story was a minute long lol

[@ellemueller]

Same. Right when my hands were fully immersed, washing dishes, it just stopped suddenly and I felt equally as pranked as anyone fooled by Mr Litre's biography.

[@josephalvarez5315]

@@ellemuellerlol I also watch this when watching dishes

[@RoweClementine]

Same lol

[@IAmRacc]

you better remember all this information it will be on the test

[@JSiuDev]

I was just starting to read some comments and the audio stopped🤦‍♂️

[@ATMOSK1234]

It doesn't surprise me iupac was fooled, chemists are taught chemistry but the historical backdrop of the field is almost never discussed.

[@sideways5153]

That’s not true, every single entry-level chemistry class I’ve ever taken has had such a focus on the names, dates, and history of atomic physics and chemistry that you could fail out of the class for not knowing what the hell the “plum pudding” model of the atom was, in spite of the actual scientific utility of this historical knowledge never, ever being the focus of study Like, at least with physics you learn older models because there’s a lot of simplified settings the older models are useful for. Chemistry has always been hard for me to get into Bc the gatekeepers don’t explain themselves very well and focus on a broad range of seemingly useless info (some of which is of life-saving importance, like standardized writing & nomenclature, some of which wouldn’t matter unless you were specifically studying the history of the field).

[@sithwolf8017]

@@sideways5153 I can attest to that. Took quite a few chem classes for my bachelor's in microbial pathogenesis at uni and the very first week or 2 of my intro courses was devoted to history. Boring as all hell. The labs were awesome though.

[@ivoryas1696]

ATMOSK1234 I don't assume your viewing of this class was within the last 50 or so years, did you?

[@6-dpegasus425]

@@sideways5153 this ain't fully true, most chemistry classes won't test you on stuff like dates and shit

[@A_B_1917]

@@sideways5153 That's the thing tho, entry-level. It's the kind of shit you learn once in education, and can easily be forgotten.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Hello! This was a short contribution of mine to an hour-long collaboration video featuring 60 creators with only 60 seconds each (see description link). I'm currently working on a few medium-length videos while I write the next big documentary. Let me know if you'd like to see shorter content like this!

[@manicdataminer]

Yes! I think that a larger number of short videos like this could help your channel grow.

[@reuternopalzin2422]

This was pretty neat.

[@martinjones5622]

This was really succinct, efficient storytelling

[@Feasco]

Next you're gonna tell us the inventor of another famous metric measurement, Sir Robert Fuckton, isn't a real person

[@violahero4life]

genius remark

[@JudgeTyBurns]

And here I thought the word “liters” was short for “liquid meters.”

[@Rwizaify]

More likely related to the stylized “L”, the symbol for English money, or “lb” for “pound”. From the Latin “litra”.

[@Tetrarque]

Yeah no, metric value actually make sense, weird I know

[@xwtek3505]

Let's learn about the actual history of liter. The name liter is based on an obsoiete unit of volume called "litron", defined as one cubic pes. Despite the similar name, liter and litron does not have the similar amount of volume. One litron is approximately 0.88 liter.

[@houserhouse]

I always thought the word liters was dumb but your comment has shown me the light

[@Anarchy-Is-Liberty]

@@Tetrarque Yeah no? OK

[@taylorjones3083]

I've never seen any math videos from you, but I think that a docu-style video on Shinichi Mochizuki's ABC conjecture "proof" would be very entertaining!

[@u.v.s.5583]

Yeah, it is probably a little too complicated. It is still Scholze said this and Mochizuki said that and everybody else said we have no idea.

[@KeithsGuest]

Bro I actually learned about this guy in my French science class and I swear he didn’t know it was fake

[@UntarLaManteca]

XD

[@SamMcDonald83]

In fairness, this might be the only decent KZbin channel intro I've ever seen...

[@mikip3242]

Sooo.... no channel intro at all?

[@kurzackd]

what intro... ?

[@asheep7797]

@@kurzackd ​ the part where he says "this is the only authenticated portrait of Claude Émile John Baptiste Litre"

[@vanesslifeygo]

I'm fooling my old science teacher with this.

[@chenfeizhou306]

have you... fooled them?

[@gallium-gonzollium]

I am craving to know if youve fooled them

[@vanesslifeygo]

@@gallium-gonzollium So they have actually passed away since my writing the parent comment 1 year ago.

[@gallium-gonzollium]

@@vanesslifeygo That actually.. so sad. I’m sorry for the loss.

[@blkmskpvd]

surprisingly engaging for a 60 second video

[@gallusdomesticus1869]

I read the title as "The most famous scientist to ever exist," so I admit I was fooled at first.

[@naughtywizard]

Thought I was about to deep dive into a 60 minute documentary lmao

[@scottsterling8586]

First, which is something I can take pride in given the short but sweet video. A few shorter videos here and there in the period between the long ones would certainly be welcome.

[@shantanusapru]

Do a (long form) video about the 'Bourbaki collective' in maths. It's damn interesting!

[@LakeManship]

you my guy are an artist

[@romeisbig6485]

Bruh, I thought this would be a half an hour video going in-depth about some misconception. Then I noticed that after a few seconds, I had already finished half the video

[@stephenriley3374]

Oh I have to start pranking people I know with this!

[@dp.batcoh5416]

Ha! I once saw a George Aufbau on an undergrad exam paper I was grading. Professors decided to have a little fun.

[@TheNoiseTracker]

According to Wikipedia, Claude's birthday was yesterday. Cheers!

[@DukeDukeGo]

I don't think I've ever seen liter abbreviated with a capital L in common usage. When I write it myself I usually do a loopy l to distinguish I have a bottle of water right next to me that says "0,75l"

[@k.umquat8604]

it varies by country ,I think

[@HenryLoenwind]

The ℓ is indeed commonly used that way.

[@Huntracony]

My bottle says "0,5L ℮", "0,5 L" and "mg/l" so... No consistency whatsoever. Now I kinda wanna see what my other bottles say but I'm too lazy to actually get up and look.

[@poudink5791]

@@HenryLoenwind weird unicode flex but ok

[@reidleblanc3140]

I've always seen it "L" .. i'm from the US though so the only times I really see it are science or medicine related

[@katawatenshu]

IUPAC, or LUPAC?

[@Mikewee777]

Tupac is dead

[@360.Tapestry]

this and the myth that people swallow so many spiders while they sleep lmao

[@lanowen]

Hahaha nice! I went to UW, this is weird 😂

[@appledinger1121]

Me and my peers use lowercase loopy/hollow (l) for litres. But I get that in digital text it can be confusing

[@rarefishtycoon6430]

Thats length tho

[@StrueSlies]

History is easily changeable, the further you go back the easier it is to change and the bigger the change can be. To be honest it is very scary, it is extremely difficult to check back in time.

[@trapadvisor]

Hey how do you make the graphics for this video? I’ve seen it on some others and want to try it out

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Currently Blender! Just a black environment and some images imported as planes, and keyframed camera

[@saaaaaaaar]

My math teacher loved to refer to Alessandro Binomi as the inventor the binomial formula. There is even an asteroid named after him (2029 Binomi). 😁

[@finhas8865]

Just below this video on my recommendation is video titled, "Winston Churchill once said.." I almost can confirm that the picture used for Litre was Churchill's.

[@NoriMori1992]

I'm glad to know he's not real, because I would not have been able to handle the fact that there's a canonical correct spelling for "liter" and it isn't the one I use 😅

[@andrewpinedo1883]

For those outside of North America, there are three common ways the symbol for the litre is written: L is used almost exclusively in North America and Australia, ℓ is primarily used in Japan and Korea, and l is used in nearly the rest of the world.

[@deleted-something]

until now I didn't even know that measurements were only capitalized if named after a person 💀

[@solyluna1778]

Hilarious! 👍

[@stapler942]

This is like a music historian legitimately thinking P.D.Q. Bach was a real composer in the Bach family. 🤣 Though given how serious people take science-related publications based on its typical reputation of "rigor", it's easy to see how one could make that mistake. The whole scare surrounding MSG and persistent myths about its health effects also came from what was originally a joke editorial in some medical journal that got mistaken for the real thing.

[@speedwagon1824]

Source for the MSG thing? I wanna learn more

[@stapler942]

@@speedwagon1824 Okay, so the basic story goes like this: In 1968 a letter appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine from a researcher named Robert Ho Man Kwok. In it, the writer describes a "strange syndrome" that he experiences when eating at Chinese restaurants, some symptoms, and some speculations as to its origin among the ingredients. He mentions that some have suggested monosodium glutamate as the culprit. Apparently this letter had the tone of being a joke and the journal received responses from other researchers who were "in" on the joke, though supposedly racial stereotypes came into play in the language used. Anyway, the press ran with the notion of "Chinese restaurant syndrome" and this became a widely spread claim that just fuelled a lot of xenophobia and stereotypes about Chinese cuisine in the West. Also it became a persistent myth that MSG causes all these symptoms that proper studies wouldn't show.

[@alcyonecrucis]

What an April fools, lol, it was a French revolutionary measurement

[@frongicide]

I'd say that Nicolas Bourbaki is more famous

[@thibautkovaltchouk3307]

But is a mathematician a scientist ? But it is an other French !

[@apt_get]

Nice litre pronunciation. You nailed it. I’m assuming you’re not French Canadian though, which might be a mistake. It’d kinda explain it.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Not French Canadian, but I live near the Quebec border and took French in school

[@BLanger37]

Shoutout to U of Waterloo, i work on a company on that campus

[@tvtothepoint]

I am his great grandson - guess my name.

[@hughreilly3072]

Iupac is where Tupac got his name, he saw it one day in his math textbook and thought the dot above the "i" was a dash, and thought it would make a great stage name, noamsayin'?

[@stoopidpants]

Is that music in the background at around 0:23 "A Walk" by Tycho?

[@mikachu69420]

if you wanna get a slight algorithm boost you might wanna consider reposing this as a youtube short. only saying this cuz i'd love to see your channel grow more :)

[@orvarl-o2554]

Nicolas Bourbaki

[@Rwizaify]

0:40 The Latin alphabet needs to be universally reformed to distinguish unambiguously “o” from “0”, as well as “l” from “1”and “i”. This has already been done to distinguish “I” from “J”, and “V” from “U”. It’s high time for another round. Alas, you probably heard it here first.

[@rin_etoware_2989]

probably because the ones who do have enough of a sway to produce these changes also understand that these gripes are too minor to justify the massive overhaul such a change would need also, 1 and I are easy to distinguish. a lot of you are just lazy.

[@bacicinvatteneaca]

And C and G.

[@aes0p895]

it's pronounced "LOOH-PAHK"

[@pritamptr662]

😂😂😂

[@nmatavka]

Worth noting: the capital-L for Litre thing is ONLY a thing in America, where they do everything backwards. In France (where the metric system was invented), and in the UK, and in Australia, and everywhere else, the lowercase l is used. If confusion is certain to result... they use a handwritten lowercase l, or one in a font that makes a clear difference. But it's still a lowercase l.

[@YeetusTheFetus]

University of Waterloo is in Canada

[@Huntracony]

In the Netherlands I see both, but I'd say capital L is more common.

[@yrobtsvt]

Handwritten, like so: ℓ

[@olipolygon]

@@YeetusTheFetus canada is in north america

[@starberry5405]

no, australians use L as well, dont know what you're talking about - every textbook and all of my education through to university have used it to avoid confusion

[@0neIntangible]

US gallon vs Imperial gallon vs Litre vs ?

[@Capybara_Productions]

How’d this get into the big video list💀

[@Capybara_Productions]

@@GoggleDumb Bobby has a playlist filled with “big videos” aka hour+ stuff, this is only a minute

[@TimwiTerby]

Feedback: this video would have been more complete if it included a bit on where the word litre _actually_ comes from

[@BobbyBroccoli]

If I didn't have a time limit I'd definitely have done that, this just happened to be a reupload of my contribution to a collab video where every segment was exactly 1 minute long

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@Slim08151 There's not enough space in the margins for the proof ...

[@wejustsoldnothing]

@@KaiHenningsen fermat moment

[@dylanoonk6456]

no one can complain that your content is too long now!

[@verward]

I've never seen "litre' capitalized. Is this an emglish/american convention?

[@andrewpinedo1883]

Yes.

[@YeetusTheFetus]

I have friends who go to UWaterloo and that kind of joke does track. They’re all nerds

[@darragho6358]

But in my irish textbooks it always was an l with a little tail on it

[@andrewpinedo1883]

The liter symbol is uppercase in the United States, Canada, and Australia, but lowercase in most parts of the world.

[@davidwilmshurst4616]

Except that EVERY SI unit has a lower case first letter. Eponymous symbols are capitalised, however.

[@garrycowan4394]

Wouldn't think being 62 was too short of a life back in those days hell that's about the expected life span of myself being from the west of Scotland and being male 😞

[@NINJA-tf6bf]

😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@mittelwelle_531_khz]

0:48 I think the biggest confusion by using a lower case letter "ell" as a unit demoting suffix might come from reading it as a "one" turning eg. 2L into a dimensionless 21 ... especially when it comes to the typical transatlantic "laziness" of our US friends (from the German point of view 😁) to write the digit one as just a vertical bar, NOT as it originally was meant to be written with a little leftwards downtick on its top end ... FOR A VERY GOOD REASON ONLY FEW PEOPLE SEEM TO KNOW. And no, that good reason is only loosely related to the "ell" vs. "one" confusion, it's a different reason which continues to the shape of ALL the Arabic (or rather Indian?) digits when they are written as it was originally intended.

[@reidleblanc3140]

it's not our fault if basically all computer fonts write "l" this way.

[@meh23p]

0:47 Hang on a second, Fahrenheit (F) is capitalized as well.

[@wildcardbitchesyeehaw8320]

What does that have to do with anything?

[@meh23p]

@@wildcardbitchesyeehaw8320my bad, heard it as though SI units are the only ones that can be capitalized, and only if they’re named after a person, except the liter.

[@wildcardbitchesyeehaw8320]

@@meh23p Ah okay, very understandable mishear

[@Kriegter]

Ok this was based

[@melaniey.5596]

I must say, Ken and Reg got a point. It’s awkward that we got so many science terminology that it’s so difficult to pronounce because it’s named after European old men.

[@KaiHenningsen]

Maybe you'd prefer to butcher some Chinese instead? Or maybe Swahili? Or ...Linguistics is a really bad argument here. Now, if the argument was scientists worth remembering, that'd be different. Maybe you have a list?

[@doigt6590]

Now, do the same exercise, but think about people from their areas and think if you find them hard to pronounce how they find your language hard to pronounce? Lots of european languages don't even have the h, th, r consonants of english! If we go outside of europe and north america, p and b are not very common consonants either and that's just consonantal sounds! It'd be too complicated making everyone happy, so we may as well just use names that honour the achievements of the dead. Your take is sincerely, not very bright and borderline ethnocentric.

[@piranha031091]

So... who's the guy on the portrait?

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I read through Ken's detailed account of coming up with the prank and there is no mention of who the portrait is of. I figure it's a generic photo of anyone from that time period, much like the generic sketches of lab equipment they used. Could be anyone really.

[@piranha031091]

@@BobbyBroccoli I found the answer! (tineye ftw!) It's a portrait of Charles Bonnet, a famous naturalist.

[@bertfromseasamestreet]

Lmao :)

[@markojojic6223]

ℓ?

[@Synday]

are you using prezi?

[@Anarchy-Is-Liberty]

Just shows how easily people can be lead down any path someone in power might want to lead them, and why I trust absolutely no one!! Science?... ROFLMFAO!!! Yeah, OK! Take your booster and relax!

[@peternystrom921]

So, is this dude a real dude or not?

[@workinprogress3942]

Too fast. This video could possibly have more depth. Idk. I'm just use to your newer posts.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

This is my segment from a larger video where each person contributed 1 minute. It was a strict time limit, and just for fun!

[@kurzackd]

IUPAC names all the chemical elements? That's what the American education system is teaching its offspring? ahahhaha :D "And also, kids, don't forget: America invented walking and breathing!" xDDD

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I really don't see how this statement is false. Building off of historical names and regional variants, IUPAC standardizes the international version of element names and symbols. You're being pedantic for the sake of being pedantic

[@imaginaryboy2000]

You can call a kid anything you want but until you sign the birth certificate nothing's set in stone.

[@Happy156]

Oh hey, it's the comment from the Ninov video! Hello! o/