Einstein Approximation

Einstein Approximation
Writers	Lee Aronsohn (Story), Dave Goetsch (Story), Steve Holland (Story), Chuck Lorre (Teleplay), Steven Molaro (Teleplay), Eric Kaplan (Teleplay)
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Starring	Melissa Rauch as Bernadette, Yeardley Smith as Sandy, Kevin Brief as Glen
Air Date	1 February 2010
Vanity	Card #275
Guide	Episode #314
Quotes	Episode #314
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 14 (0314)

Bozeman Reaction . . . << Einstein Approximation >> . . . Large Hadron Collision

Summary

Sheldon's search for the answer to a physics problem leads him to work at the Cheesecake Factory with Penny.

Episode Outline

I. Living room, Thursday morning

• Penny wakes up to find Sheldon in front of his whiteboard, trying to engage the superior colliculus of his brain because he's stuck with a physics problem.
• Leonard enters and explains Sheldon's behaviour to Penny, considering a comparison of Sheldon to Captain Hook.
• When Leonard suggests that Sheldon tries a "fresh start", the latter throws his whiteboard out of the window and takes a blank, new one to "start over".

Title and Opening Themes

II. Cafeteria

• While Sheldon scans through a book, trying to figure out his physics problem, Leonard and Howard discuss how to "un-stuck" him.
• Raj turns up and suggests they go to the Disco Night of the Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale. Leonard and Howard like the idea and decide to go with Penny and Bernadette as a double-date. Raj is upset.

III. Stairway, Thursday night

• Penny and Bernadette return from the Disco Night deeply embarrassed about Howard and Leonard, while the latter two are rather proud of themselves and happy with the evening.

IV. Living room

• When entering the room, Penny and Leonard slip on marbles which Sheldon had spread across the floor to visualise his physics problem.
• Bernadette reminds Sheldon what happens to the brain when it doesn't get enough sleep and makes Sheldon go to bed.

V. Penny's bedroom

• Penny wakes up to the laughing of The Joker because of Leonard's phone ringing.
• Leonard gets a call from Glen, security officer at a nearby children's play-place. He should come and pick up Sheldon.

VI. Children's play-place

• Leonard finds Sheldon in the ball pit of the play-place. He tries to persuade him to come home, but Sheldon prefers to play seek-and-hide in the pit.

VII. Penny's bedroom

• Sheldon wakes Leonard and Penny to tell them that he found out how to solve his physics problem - he will look for a "medial job".

VIII. Unemployment office

• Sheldon talks to Sandy trying to find a "medial job", but he's not suited to any of the jobs she has on offer.
• When Sandy finds out that Sheldon is a theoretical physicist she calls security.

IX. Cheesecake Factory

• Penny is working and meets Sheldon who's cleaning the tables. He explains that he started working at the Cheesecake Factory.

X. Cheesecake Factory

• Sheldon serves Leonard, Raj and Howard who enjoy the experience.
• When Sheldon drops a tray with dirty dishes he suddenly sees the answer to his physics problem. He leaves.

XI. Moonlight Rollerway

• Howard and Raj are rollerskating.

XII. Children's play-place

• Leonard and Sheldon play hide-and-seek in the ball pit.

Resources

List of entries from this episode

Photos from the location shoot at Moonlight Rollerway: 1 2 3

Science blog for this episode

Notes and Trivia

Filming began on the 4th Jan 2010. The location shoot at the Moonlight Rollerway (18 January 2010) was the first location shoot of the series. All previous exterior shots were filmed on the Warner Bros lot.

Timeline

This episode takes place over two consecutive days. It starts on a morning (after Sheldon has been stuck on his physics problem for 24 hours), then events during the night are seen. The episode ends at the evening of the following day when Sheldon figures out his physics problem.

Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale has a "Roller Disco Thursday" ([1]), thus we can assume that the episode started on Thursday, 29th of January and ended on Friday, 30th of January.

Title

Sheldon hits upon the idea of taking a mindless job in order to occupy himself while giving his brain a chance to dwell on the higher problems of physics. He bases this idea on the fact that Albert Einstein came up with his theory of special relativity while working at a patent office (c. 1903). Sheldon, then, sets himself up as another Einstein, an "Einstein approximation".